Sterling
Not yet written. Fill in from a real source, then update meta.status.
- Bitterness
- Moderate (4–9% alpha)
- In the glass
- 28 beers here · 1 fresh hop
- Usually paired with
- Chinook, Cascade, Centennial
- Swap it for
- Taiheke · compare them →
Brewing values
Alpha acid
4–9% typical 6.4
3 sources, and they disagree, spread of 5%
- Hopsteiner4–6Data sheet last changed 2020-01-09.
- Indie Hops6–9
- Crosby Hop Farm5.5–8.5
Beta acid
4–6% typical 5.3
3 sources, spread of 2%
- Hopsteiner5–6Data sheet last changed 2020-01-09.
- Indie Hops4–6
- Crosby Hop Farm4.5–6
Cohumulone
21–24% of alpha typical 22.9
2 sources, and they disagree, spread of 3% of alpha
- Hopsteiner21–23Data sheet last changed 2020-01-09.
- Indie Hops24–24
Total oil
0.8–2 mL/100g typical 1.3
3 sources, and they disagree, spread of 1.2 mL/100g
- Hopsteiner0.8–1.2Data sheet last changed 2020-01-09.
- Indie Hops1.3–1.9
- Crosby Hop Farm1–2
Alpha to beta runs about 1.2:1, which is what governs how fast the bitterness fades in storage.
Oil composition
- Myrcene51.3%
- Humulene22.7%
- Farnesene17.6%
- Caryophyllene7.4%
- Linalool0.9%
Normalised to 100% so this hop can be compared like for like. The published components sum to 84.2% of total oil in the source data.
Where it's grown
In 2025: 44 acres in Oregon. That's 44 acres.
Acres by year
| Year | Oregon |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 209 |
| 2016 | 228 |
| 2017 | 227 |
| 2018 | 191 |
| 2019 | 147 |
| 2020 | 58 |
| 2021 | 58 |
| 2022 | 35 |
| 2023 | 30 |
| 2024 | 45 |
| 2025 | 44 |
Acres harvested, from the USDA NASS National Hop Report. Where America's hops grow →
In the glass · 28 beers from 9 breweries
- Fresh Hop Sterling Pilsner Breakside Brewery · fresh hop
- Ridgeback Red Block 15 Brewing
- Breakside White Breakside Brewery
- It's a Me Mario Breakside Brewery
- Unbearable Lightness Breakside Brewery
- Devil’s Cuvée Kriek Double Mountain Brewery
- Jiro Double Mountain Brewery
- Meet the Kolsch Double Mountain Brewery
- Pêche Cuvée Double Mountain Brewery
- Tahoma Cuvée Double Mountain Brewery
- Tahoma Kriek Double Mountain Brewery
- Oort Imperial Stout Ecliptic Brewing
Brewed alongside · in 14 beers that use Sterling 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 Sterling.
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.
Notes on this record
purpose defaulted to dual, unconfirmed -- was not researched individually for this bulk scaffold pass. Correct before publishing.
For brewers and data folks: this hop as JSON · the source file · where America's hops grow