Glossary
Hop oil
The volatile essential oils in hops — chiefly myrcene, humulene, caryophyllene and farnesene — that carry aroma and flavour rather than bitterness.
Also called essential oil, total oil, myrcene, humulene.
Myrcene dominates most modern aroma varieties and reads as resinous, green and citrus-adjacent. Humulene is associated with the noble hop character — herbal, woody, refined. The ratio between them is a better predictor of a hop’s character than total oil alone.
These compounds boil off readily, which is the entire reason late additions, whirlpool hopping and dry hopping exist.
Related
More vocabulary
Adjunct · Aroma hop · Base malt · Bittering hop · Black malt · Brettanomyces · Candi sugar · Chocolate malt · Crystal malt · Dextrin
See every term on the glossary index.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.