The Top 5 Hop Products of 2024

Photography courtesy of Clayton Hops

In a world where brewers are constantly search to improve yield efficiency to help the bottom line, global companies globally have created seemingly countless number of hop innovations to adhere to that need above.

For example, Abstrax Quantum Series, John I. Haas’ HopHaze, Incognito®, SPECTRUM®, and FLEX®, Hopsteiner’s Salvo™, Freestyle Hops’ SubZero Hop Kief, and Yakima Chief Hops’ DynaBoost. Add Clayton Hops’ Amplifire™ Fresh Hop Oil to that growing list.

We chatted with Clayton Hops CEO Brian Clayton and Quality, Innovation, and Sales Manager Lauren Yap about the product’s R&D, benefits, cost-effectiveness, and how to best use it.

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Photography courtesy of John I. Haas

The John I. Haas company is no stranger to hop innovations. Haas has created numerous flowable hop products that cover the bases of all phases of a brew cycle. If you want to add bitterness, try FLEX®; for something in the whirlpool, use Incognito®; and for dry-hop additions, implement SPECTRUM®. Additionally, Haas created HopHaze to help beers maintain a stable haze and HopKick to boost flavor and aroma in all beverages—which you add as close to the end of brewing as possible. Accordingly, we weren’t surprised to see Haas recently unveil a new liquid hop product, Euphorics™, that will add oomph to the flavor and aroma of your finished beer.

We chatted with Haas’ Associate Process Scientist Caitlin Rippner and Varietal Beer Company Owner, Head Brewer, and President Chris Baum, an early user of Euphorics, to learn about the product’s R&D process, how to use it, its benefits, which style of beer it works best with, and how much money it can save you.

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Photography courtesy of RipeLocker

There’s something about enjoying a wet hop beer like no other. The hop harvest in the U.S. is treated like the holiday season for the craft beer industry—for both brewers and consumers. The unfortunate part, though, is if you aren’t within a certain radius of the Pacific Northwest, you don’t always have the opportunity to brew or consume wet hop beers. But with new technology, RipeLocker looks to change all that.

We chatted with RipeLocker Senior Director of Fruit Sciences Brendon Anthony, Oasis Farms Owner Brenton Roy and Hop Manager Tyler Sabin, and Roadhouse Brewing Brewmaster Max Shafer to learn about the technology behind RipeLocker, how it works, its benefits, and whether it’s worth it.

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Photography courtesy of Freestyle Hops

While innovations with hop products improve flavor and aroma, the name of the game is yield. Flowable hop innovations—we’ve covered a lot of them, including HopHaze, Incognito, SPECTRUM, FLEX®, Salvo™, and DynaBoost (formerly YCH 702)—are made for use in hot- and cold-side additions to save money and yield, while giving you true-to-varietal hop flavor and aroma. Most recently, Freestyle Hops added its cold-side flowable hop product to the market: SubZero Hop Kief.

SubZero Hop Kief provides another option for brewers to get optimal flavor and aroma from some of the best Southern Hemisphere hops on the market. We chatted with Freestyle Hops Managing Director David Dunbar and early adopters of the product at Fast Friends Beer Company to learn more about the product, how it differs from other flowable innovations, its benefits, and more.

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Photography courtesy of Yakima Chief Hops

There is no shortage of innovations available to craft brewers. When running a successful brewery, making beer often boils down to maximizing yield and putting the best product in the package. That’s where flowable hop products like John I. Haas’ HopHaze®, FLEX®, SPECTRUM, INCOGNITO®, and HopKick come in handy. To add another tool to your toolbox, Yakima Chief Hops (YCH) recently launched its own flowable hop product, YCH DynaBoost™.

We chatted with YCH R&D Brewery Manager Tessa Schilaty and Von Ebert Brewing Brewmaster Samuel Pecoraro, who worked with YCH during the R&D phase, to learn what it is exactly, how and when to use it, and which beers benefit most from it.

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