Amarillo Hops: The Citrusy Hop That Was Discovered By Accident

History of Amarillo Hops

The history of the Amarillo variety starts with a chance discovery. Unlike many other varieties there was no purposeful breeding of different plants to amplify certain characteristics and minimize others, no involvement of the USDA hop breeding program. It is the whim of nature, pure and simple, that we have to thank for this hop.

In 1990, a small hop bine was discovered growing alongside the Liberty hops at Virgil Gamache Farms in Washington. The plant looked different. There was a slight yellowish cast to the bine and immature leaves. Liberty hop cones are generally medium sized with dusky yellow insides.

When this unknown bine finally produced cones they were much smaller in size and bright yellow when pulled apart. The farm was intrigued by the strong citrus aromas produced by the cones and in 1991 they took cuttings from the plant and started propagation.

It was named Amarillo, which is yellow in Spanish. In 2003, the farm registered and patented the new variety under the designation VGXP01. Below is the abstract from the patent:

“The new hop plant variety named ‘VGXP01’ is notable for its unique, pleasant aroma and relatively high alpha content. The cones of the new variety are small and compact, and grow abundantly on the mature plant.”

Vigil Gamache Farms owns all rights to this variety and is the exclusive grower. What does this mean for hobby brewers? Well, it means Amarillo hops can sometimes be hard to come by because much of the farms harvest is already spoken for by commercial breweries. This becomes especially noticeable if the farm has a below average harvest.

Unfortunately, it also means it is impossible to grow your own Amarillo hops. Rhizomes just aren’t available at this time.

Amarillo has one of the highest Myrcene oil contents of any hop variety which gives it that much sought-after lemon/orange/grapefruit aroma. Interestingly the patent says the hop is most like a Yugoslavian variety called “Buket,” but with higher alpha acid content.

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How to Brew Beer With Amarillo Hops

Beyond pulling a black-ops rhizome rescue mission this variety of hop is not available to the backyard hop grower — and the whole black-ops mission thing really isn’t worth the trouble. But don’t despair there are plenty of other hop varieties out there that are available to the hobby gardener including some of the substitute varieties.

If you plan on growing your own hops, then it would be wise to read our hop growing article. When choosing a variety it is best to talk to other local growers or your homebrewer shop to get some intel on which varieties grow well in your area.

General Characteristics:

• Climate —
• Growth Rate — Medium-vigorous
• Yield — Low
• Cones — Small and compact
• Maturity — Mid-season
• Susceptible To —
• Resistant To — Most common wilts; and moderate resistance (on par with Centennial) to powdery mildew
• Ease of Harvest — Good
• Storage — Moderate (% of alpha acids remaining after 6 months a 20°C is above average)

Sensory Description:

Distinct flowery, spicy, tropical; citrus-like with qualities of orange and lemon, like Cascade but much stronger.

Use:

Considered a Cascade type hop. Dual-purpose aroma and flavoring hop with low enough Co-Humulone levels to allow good bittering properties also. Often it is used in dry-hopping to augment the lemon/orange citrus character in the beer.

This citrus quality makes this a particularly good variety for the wheat styles. The myrcene oils that produce the grapefruit/orange character are so high that overuse of the hop can also create a somewhat metallic flavor.

Can Substitute With/For These Hops:

These are general substitutions and are not perfect Amarillo clones in any respect. Each hop variety is unique in some way, so do not expect the exact same beer you’d get using Amarillo hops. Obviously this goes the other direction too, using Amarillo as a sub for one of the below listed hops.

• Cascade
• Centennial
• Simcoe

Common Beer Styles Using U.S. Amarillo Hops:

• American Wheat
• American Pale Ale
• American IPA
• Amber
• Wheat Beers

Commercial Examples:

• Amarillo Pale Ale from Hanger 24 Brewing Company – Uses Amarillo Only
• Gumballhead from Three Floyds Brewing Company
• Yellow Snow IPA from Rogue Brewing Company – Uses Amarillo Only
• Summer Ale from Fremont Brewing Company – Uses Amarillo Only
• Red RyePA from Founders Brewing Company- Dry hopped with Amarillo
• Amarillo Hefe from Saint Arnold Brewing Company- Amarillo Only
• Aprihop from Dogfish Head Brewing Company – Dry hopped with Amarillo
• Rye Pale Ale from Terrapin Brewing Company – Dry hopped with Amarillo
• Duet from Alpine Brewing Company – Simcoe and Amarillo hops
• Ballistic IPA from Ale Asylum – Amarillo for flavoring and aroma

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