Elani
Pineapple, guava, lime, white peach and orange zest, per Yakima Quality Hops. Found wild rather than bred, and cleaner than that story suggests: no onion or garlic, and brewers keep reaching for Simcoe and Mosaic comparisons.
- Smells like
- Pineapple, Guava, Lime, Peach, Orange
- Bitterness
- Moderate (4–11% alpha)
- In the glass
- 6 beers here
- Swap it for
- Styrian Cardinal · compare them →
Brewing values
Alpha acid
4–11% typical 6.8
3 sources, and they disagree, spread of 7%
- Charles Faram9–11
- Yakima Quality Hops4–7
- Crosby Hop Farm5–7
Beta acid
1.6–7% typical 3.6
2 sources, and they disagree, spread of 5.4%
- Charles Faram4–7
- Crosby Hop Farm1.6–2.4
Cohumulone
30–34% of alpha typical 32
1 source, spread of 4% of alpha
- Charles Faram30–34
Total oil
1.3–2.4 mL/100g typical 1.9
3 sources, spread of 1.1 mL/100g
- Charles Faram1.3–2
- Yakima Quality Hops1.6–2.4
- Crosby Hop Farm1.6–2.4
Alpha to beta runs about 1.9:1, which is what governs how fast the bitterness fades in storage.
Oil composition
Not enough of this hop's oil is accounted for to show a breakdown. The sources on file name components totalling 59.5% of total oil — most of the balance is myrcene, which the source for this record doesn't publish. Rather than scale what's here up to 100% and invent the rest, here is only what was actually measured:
Where it's grown
In 2025: 78 acres in Washington, 8 acres in Idaho. That's 86 acres. No. 10 by acreage in Idaho.
Acres by year
| Year | Washington | Idaho |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | — | — |
| 2016 | — | — |
| 2017 | — | — |
| 2018 | — | — |
| 2019 | — | — |
| 2020 | — | — |
| 2021 | — | — |
| 2022 | — | — |
| 2023 | 61 | 8 |
| 2024 | 58 | 8 |
| 2025 | 78 | 8 |
Acres harvested, from the USDA NASS National Hop Report. Where America's hops grow →
Aroma
In the glass · 6 beers from 2 breweries
- Fact Check IPA Cloudburst Brewing
- Just So Happens IPA Cloudburst Brewing
- Lupulin Mingle IPA Cloudburst Brewing
- Touch Grass IPA Cloudburst Brewing
- Just a Little Krush Ex Novo Brewing
- Swedish Swimsuit Ex Novo Brewing
Brewed alongside · in 5 beers that use Elani with other hops
Counted from the hop lists of every beer in What's in the can: what Pacific Northwest brewers actually put next to Elani.
What to swap it for
Scored on aroma overlap, oil composition and acid chemistry, then nudged up where a brewer has vouched for the swap by hand. An axis we haven't measured earns nothing, so a hop known only by its acid numbers caps out around 30 — the score is how much evidence there is for the swap, not just how close the numbers happen to be. Anything under 50 is a different beer, not a substitution.
Pedigree
Parentage unrecorded. A wild hop found in the woods and brought into cultivation.
Notes on this record
purpose defaulted to dual, unconfirmed. Yakima Quality Hops publishes 4-7% alpha where a UK merchant lists 9-11%; both are on file and shown as a disagreement.
For brewers and data folks: this hop as JSON · the source file · where America's hops grow