Hop family
High-alpha bittering hops
Varieties bred for efficient bitterness, delivering high alpha acid per unit of plant material.
Varieties bred to deliver bitterness efficiently — Magnum, Warrior, Apollo, Herkules and the rest. Alpha acid in the high teens or twenties means a brewer reaches a target IBU with a fraction of the hop weight, and less vegetal matter in the kettle means less wort lost to absorption.
They are usually described as neutral, and that is a slight injustice: many have a perfectly good aroma that nobody ever experiences because they are added at the start of a sixty-minute boil. The grouping describes a use rather than a flavour, and a high-alpha hop used late behaves like any other aroma variety.
What unites them
Alpha acid above roughly 12%, allowing a target bitterness to be reached with less material. Many are respectable aroma hops too, so "bittering hop" describes an economic role rather than a limitation.
Grouped by what they smell like rather than by breeding or origin.
Varieties carrying this character
- Admiral
A high-alpha English bittering hop with a firm, clean bitterness and citrus-herbal notes.
- Agnus
A Czech high-alpha variety bred to give Bohemian brewers a domestic bittering hop.
- Apollo
A very high-alpha American hop with sharp grapefruit and resinous character.
- Azacca
A bright modern American hop with mango, papaya and citrus over a piney base.
- Bravo
A high-alpha American bittering hop with a cleaner and fruitier aroma than most of its category.
- Chinook
A powerfully resinous American hop: pine, grapefruit pith and a firm, sometimes harsh bitterness.
- Cluster
The historic American workhorse hop, dominant before the craft era — floral and pungent with a distinctive earthy edge.
- Columbus
A dank, resinous high-alpha American hop, sold interchangeably as CTZ, and used both for bitterness and for pungent aroma.
- Dana
A high-alpha Slovenian bittering hop bred from Hallertauer Magnum.
- Denali
A modern American hop with pineapple, citrus and a distinctive pine-cone character.
- Ekuanot
A versatile modern hop with melon, lime and green pepper character.
- El Dorado
A sweet, candy-like modern American hop with pronounced pear drop, watermelon and stone fruit.
- Enigma
An Australian variety with redcurrant, white wine and melon character.
- Galaxy
An Australian hop with extraordinary oil content and overwhelming passionfruit and peach character.
- Galena
A dependable American bittering hop with blackcurrant and citrus notes.
- Green Bullet
A New Zealand high-alpha hop with raisin, spice and a firm traditional bitterness.
- Herkules
A high-alpha German bittering hop offering clean bitterness with a mild spicy-citrus background.
- Idaho 7
An Idaho-bred hop with apricot, mango and a distinctive black-tea and pine character.
- Magnum
A clean, efficient German bittering hop that contributes bitterness without imposing much aroma of its own.
- Northern Brewer
A dual-purpose hop with a distinctive woody, minty character — the signature hop of California Common.
- Nugget
A clean, herbal American high-alpha bittering hop with good storage stability.
- Pacific Jade
A New Zealand dual-purpose hop with black pepper, citrus and a soft bitterness.
- Pilgrim
A modern English dual-purpose hop with a clean bitterness and spicy, lemon-tinged aroma.
- Polaris
A very high-alpha German variety with an unusual and powerful mint-eucalyptus aroma.
- Pride of Ringwood
The historic Australian bittering hop, dominant in Australian lager for decades, with a woody, earthy character.
- Simcoe
A distinctive American hop combining pine and passionfruit with a characteristic catty, dank edge.
- Southern Cross
A New Zealand dual-purpose hop with lemon peel, pine and a smooth bitterness.
- Summit
A dwarf high-alpha American variety with tangerine and pink grapefruit alongside a pronounced onion-garlic note some drinkers find intrusive.
- Target
A high-alpha English hop with an intense earthy, herbal character and a firm bitterness.
- Topaz
A high-alpha Australian hop with tropical fruit and a distinctive grassy, resinous edge.
- Vic Secret
An Australian hop with pineapple, passionfruit and pine, close in character to Galaxy.
- Vital
A Czech high-alpha variety, and one of the strongest bittering hops bred in Bohemia.
- Warrior
A very clean American high-alpha bittering hop, favoured for smooth bitterness in IPA.
- Zeus
A high-alpha American bittering hop, part of the CTZ group alongside Columbus and Tomahawk.
34 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.