West Coast Hop Breeding introduces the Celeste™Hop
Oregon’s own hop innovators at West Coast Hop Breeding have announced the launch of a new hop variety called Celeste™ with major potential. Celeste™ represents a breakthrough in combining excellent agronomics and an intense contemporary aroma profile that will make for a high efficiency aroma variety. The new variety is said to impart bright, sweet, and clean notes of passion fruit, honeydew, and pine.
Celeste™ has been in commercial trials since 2023 gathering steam and reputation in all styles from hazy IPA to West Coast IPA to stunning in stripped down hoppy pilsners - including in the Farm Aid collaborative beer to highlight the story of family hop farmers. Formerly known by experimental names WCHB-102 and 2B, Celeste™ was trialed at breweries like Cloudburst Brewing, The Alchemist, Ninkasi, and Our Mutual Friend to name a few, and was extremely well received.
“Wow is this an exciting hop. It is the first hop I have in a long while that made me step back and say ‘wow!’” says The Alchemist’s John Kimmich who used Celeste™ in Skadoosh 75 hazy IPA. “This hop is so unique and so beautiful. The tropical fruit, there’s citrus in there, there’s hints of that McKenzie kind of Zappa thing in there, but overall just a touch of the dank in the nose but just so damn delicious.”
Christopher Basso, Brewmaster, Newburgh Brewing Company says "Our flagship IPA, MegaBoss, isn't a haze bomb, nor is it a throwback West Coast IPA—it lives somewhere in between, and Celeste is part of what makes that possible. The passion fruit and honeydew come through bright and clean, but there's that piney finish underneath that helps keep it classicly grounded. It's been a great hop for us to give MegaBoss both modern and classic qualities."
Celeste comes from Oregon farmer Pat Leavy’s breeding program and is the result of two hops bred together over the course of 20 years. Leavy has been breeding hops for organic production in Oregon’s challenging climate for over 30 years. One of the main features outside of the aroma and flavor is the heavy downy resistance plus powdery tolerance for production in organic systems.
Celeste™ is available now through The Hop Guild, Charles Faram Canada and US, and direct through West Coast Hop Breeding.
About West Coast Hop Breeding
West Coast Hop Breeding (WHCB) is a collaborative hop breeding project comprised of five independent Oregon hop farming families. The company was established in 2016 to ensure that Oregon hop growers have a sustainable future by developing excellent aroma varieties that thrive in Oregon’s unique soil and climate growing conditions. “Sustainable hops for the future.”