Hop family
English traditional hops
The historic English varieties behind bitter, porter and English IPA — earthy, herbal, floral and honeyed rather than citrus.
Fuggle, Goldings and their descendants, grown in Kent, Herefordshire and Worcestershire since the nineteenth century. The character is earthy, herbal and faintly woody rather than fruity, and it sits underneath a beer instead of on top of it — which is why an English bitter reads as balanced where a beer with the same IBU and American hops reads as bitter.
The distinction between the two founding varieties is finer than the literature suggests. Goldings is a family of clonal selections rather than a single variety, and Fuggle turns out to be a parent or close relative of several hops grown elsewhere under other names, including Willamette in America and Styrian Golding in Slovenia — which, confusingly, is a Fuggle rather than a Golding.
What unites them
Grown in England, largely from the Goldings and Fuggle lineages, and sharing a restrained earthy-floral character with hints of honey, tea and stone fruit. They are aroma hops with modest alpha acid, used at rates that would be trivial in a modern IPA.
Grouped by where they are grown.
Varieties carrying this character
- Admiral
A high-alpha English bittering hop with a firm, clean bitterness and citrus-herbal notes.
- Boadicea
The first aphid-resistant hop variety, bred in England and grown with substantially reduced pesticide.
- Bramling Cross
An English hop with an unusual and pronounced blackcurrant and dark-berry character.
- Brewer's Gold
A historically important English variety, ancestor to much of the modern high-alpha stock, with blackcurrant and spice.
- Challenger
A versatile English dual-purpose hop with green tea, cedar and light spice over a clean bitterness.
- East Kent Goldings
The classic English aroma hop: earthy, floral and honeyed, and the backbone of bitter and English IPA.
- Endeavour
An English hop bred from Cascade and a British variety, giving berry character over an English base.
- First Gold
A dwarf English variety in the Goldings mould, with orange-marmalade citrus over a floral base.
- Fuggle
The other classic English hop — earthy, woody and mildly grassy, and a parent of much of the world’s hop stock.
- Jester
A modern English variety bred for New World character — grapefruit and blackcurrant with an English backbone.
- Northdown
A well-regarded English dual-purpose hop with clean bitterness and a piney, resinous aroma.
- Phoenix
An English dual-purpose hop in the Challenger mould, spicy and mildly floral.
- Pilgrim
A modern English dual-purpose hop with a clean bitterness and spicy, lemon-tinged aroma.
- Progress
An English aroma hop bred as a Fuggle replacement, softer and slightly sweeter.
- Sovereign
A gentle English dwarf aroma hop with grassy, floral and faintly herbal character.
- Target
A high-alpha English hop with an intense earthy, herbal character and a firm bitterness.
- Whitbread Golding Variety
A traditional English aroma hop, fruitier and slightly sweeter than East Kent Goldings.
- Willamette
An American Fuggle seedling: mild, earthy and floral, and a staple of American ales.
18 varieties, grouped by character rather than by pedigree — so hops bred elsewhere to a family’s profile are listed alongside its traditional members, and the count will not always match a list of names given above. A hop can also belong to more than one family. The hop index carries every variety.