HOP QUERIES

West Coast Hop Breeding today announced the release of Celeste, formerly known by experimental names WCHB-102 and 2B. She is named for heavenly beauty, and features bright, sweet, and clean notes of passion fruit, honeydew, and pine.

Celeste (10-12.8 alpha acids, 6-7% beta acids, 1.5-2.3 mL/100 grams total oil) is the second hop from WCHB, established by five Oregon hop farming families in 2016 to ensure that Oregon hop growers have a sustainable future by developing excellent aroma varieties. Pat Leavy, one of the farmers in the collective, does the breeding, making crosses from germplasm he has collected during the past 20 years. Celeste has “heavy downy resistance plus powdery tolerance for production in organic systems.” The hops Leavy grows are certified organic.

Ben Smith at WCHB member B&D Farms adds, “Celeste yields well with a minimum of inputs.”

Celeste is available now through The Hop Guild, Charles Faram Canada and US, and direct from West Coast Hop Breeding.

At this moment, The Hop Guild has enough 2025 crop for full batch brewing. Chris Holden, director of sales and marketing, made it clear he his a fan while talking to brewers at the New York State Brewers Conference. He first smelled what was then called WCHB-102 sitting in bales at the mill while THB was producing Citra Hopsauce, its proprietary flowable extract. “The bales overpowered the Citra Hopsauce,” he said. “That told me that the she was a winner.”

He describes Celeste as a small but mighty bulldog. She “has the potency to brew fun beers and sit at the big boy table with the big sexy hops,” he said. “My favorite is the lime and passion fruit combo that hits you in the face and carries through to the finished product.”

In a press release announcing that the experimental hop previously known at HPA-033 will be called Luna, Hop Products Australia states, “Just like our customers, our hops are big characters. When choosing a name, we like to consider both the hop’s flavour profile and its position in our portfolio. Luna seemed like the obvious choice for a hop that is distinguished by lush mango, dark berry and spicy citrus characters, alongside a high polyphenol content that elevates the flavour profile and mouthfeel.”

One more sentence from the press release to give you an idea which other varieties Luna is like to hang out with: “With an aroma intensity akin to Krush, and a biotransformation potential similar to Galaxy, Luna is a joy to experience in the whirlpool and dry hop.”

HPA suggests that a late whirlpool addition of 1-2g/L (0.4-0.7lb/bbl) accentuates spicy citrus characteristics, which can present as marmalade when interacting with darker malts. A dry hop of 4-10g/L (1.3-3.3lb/bbl) elevates the lush mango and dark berry character.

Luna is the result of a 2003 cross between a high alpha Australian male and Liberty, herself a cross made in Oregon between Hallertau Mittelfrüh and a German male. She contains 13.2-15% alpha acids, 7.5-8.2% beta acids, 1.9-2.5 mL/100 grams total oil.

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Clayton Hops in New Zealand has given the name Rhapzody to the experimental hop variety formerly known as CIP 014, bred in partnership with the New Zealand Institute for Bioeconomy Science (formerly Plant and Food Research).

Here are the basics: 13-14% alpha acids, 4.5-6% beta acids, .8-1.3 mL/100 grams total oil. Rich in 3s4mp precursors, which may add passionfruit, grapefruit and sometimes rhubarb aromas and flavors. Her ancestry includes Nugget, Smoothcone, Southern Cross, and Pacific Sunrise.

Clayton promotes her “intense tropical, passionfruit and pineapple character. Can be used both on the hot side and as dry hop in a variety of styles targeting a fruit forward hop profile.” They provide this sensory diagram:

They suggest Rhapzody pairs well with Mosaic, Citra, Cascade, Eclipse, Nelson Sauvin, and Motueka; and that she could be used in place of Galaxy, Strata, El Dorado, or Simcoe.