The eastern borders of the Alsace region of France follow the curves of the Rhine as it snakes along the boundary with Germany. Its rolling hills and plains are best known for wine grapes such as Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, and Muscat—but this verdant area also happens to be the country’s primary hop-growing region.
Until two decades ago, most of the region’s hops went to a certain large beer company based in St. Louis. When that relationship ended, France’s hop industry was left searching not only for a new source of business, but for a new identity altogether.
Since then, especially over the past decade and a half, the Alsatian hops industry has sought to redefine itself by developing a new generation of hop varieties. These hops can contribute aromas of white wine, stone fruits, strawberries, and citrus and tropical fruits; and brewers are finding places for them in hop-forward lagers, saisons, and, of course, IPAs.
Brewers worldwide have more options than ever when it comes to exciting aroma varieties, but those from the Alsace—like the local wines—are offering qualities that are simultaneously delicious yet refined.
A New Era for French Hops
Farmers have grown hops commercially in the Alsace since at least 1795, and likely much earlier. At that time, Alsace wasn’t part of France—even today, the region enjoys a blend of French and German cultural markers—and this background likely influenced its brewing past.
“It was just a whole bunch of kingdoms with French and German influence at that time, too,” says Francis Heitz, export manager at Comptoir Agricole, the Alsatian agricultural cooperative that includes Hop France. “And so, we probably benefited from this love for beer from the German culture.”
France is a wine culture, to be sure, but in the early 20th century, there were also about 4,000 breweries in the country—mostly concentrated in the north and east. (In recent years, the country has been enjoying a craft-driven renaissance, with an estimated 2,500 mostly tiny breweries today.) At the outbreak of World War I, the Alsace had about 4,600 hectares (about 11,000 acres) planted with hops. A century later, only about a tenth of that remains.
When we think of French hops, we typically think of Strisselspalt, a delicate Noble-adjacent hop with fine herbal-floral aromas and restrained bittering. That classic variety took up most of the Alsace’s 400 hectares under trellis until nearly 20 years ago, and most of that crop was contracted to Anheuser Busch. When InBev purchased the company in 2008, it also abruptly terminated the Strisselspalt contract.
That not only meant an immediate loss of sales, but it also left the French hop industry with a visibility problem. Few brewers were familiar with French hops because Anheuser Busch had been using most of them.
Yet the rhizomes for a possible future had already been planted. Hop France had begun a hop-breeding program in 2001 with the primary purpose of improving—or replacing—the bittering performance of Strisselspalt (often just 2–2.5 percent alpha acids). In 2010, they released Aramis, a sort of “super Strisselspalt” with a higher alpha-acid content (6.5–8.5 percent).
Ironically, while the breeding program had been a success in bolstering Strisselspalt, losing the Anheuser Busch contract freed them from needing it as badly. They no longer had to define themselves by a solitary lager hop.
Today, Alsatian farmers are growing multiple unique varieties alongside Strisselspalt and Aramis. Fruit-forward notes abound, though they tend to be more subtle than what we might expect from the Pacific Northwest, Australia, or New Zealand. If you want citrus, for example, think less zesty grapefruit and more soft lemon, yuzu, lime, or tangerine. Similar to some New Zealand varieties, however, these French hops can offer white wine–like flavors, and brewers working with them have noted similarities with Alsatian wines.
With those traits in mind, how are brewers making the best use of them?
Hoppy Lager, with a French Lilt
So far, perhaps the most impressive application of the more expressive French varieties is among the new wave of dry-hopped lagers.
Sebastian Hohentanner, sales director at the Japanese brewing equipment supplier BET and a consultant for Hop France, recommends that brewers start by using French hops in classic applications. French varieties tend to be high in beta acids and low in cohumulone, which means the bitterness they provide is gentler and more refined.
“These hops are perfect for building high-quality bitterness in the background,” Hohentanner says, “building the foundation for beers that are not 100 percent hop-forward.”
In 2024 at the Mexico’s Copa Cerveza MX competition, Hop France sponsored a special category for beers brewed with French hops. Mexico City’s Cervecería Itañeñe won gold for a German-style pils brewed with 100 percent Mistral hops.
“It was a pilsner, but that pilsner became like wine,” says Itañeñe founder and head brewer Lucía Carrillo. “I really love wine, and all the flavors that Mistral has when dry hopping cold, I realize that they have expression like a gewürztraminer, and I really enjoy that.”
While many of the flavors of Mistral and other varieties can be found in American or Pacific hops, Carrillo describes the French hops as more elegant and subtle, with extra floral nuances. She says she finds that the flavor expressions vary depending on the temperature at which she dry hops: At colder temperatures, she gets more traditional Noble-like aromas of herbs and spice; at cellar temperatures around 50 to 55°F (10 to 13°C), she gets more flowers and fresh fruit; and at room temperature, she gets more mature fruit notes.
Several of the French varieties, especially Elixir and Mistral, are high in thiols, and Hohentanner says he’s talked to several breweries that have found success with mash hopping, as well.
While the possibilities for pilsners and other hoppy lagers should excite brewers, the emergence of new varieties often leads to one all-important question for U.S. brewers: Can you brew IPA with it?
Photos: Courtesy Hop France
IPA Spéciale
Nathan Miller is head brewer at Brasserie Cambier in Croix, France, between Lille and the Belgian border. When he started there seven years ago, he was brewing pale ale using French hops, and the concept intrigued him.
This was right around the time hazy IPA was dominating craft beer in the United States.
“All of the sudden, you have the New England IPA,” he says. “I had this idea in my head: What’s something we can make that’s uniquely French?”
Miller created what Cambier calls New French IPA, a 6.5 percent ABV hazy brewed with Barbe Rouge, Elixir, and Mistral hops. He describes the flavors from the hops as tea-like and fruity, with Elixir adding a pine-like aroma. He says the overall flavors are less intense than what we’d expect from American hops; he suggests that a lighter, drier-bodied hazy IPA would allow the hops to shine.
The brewery has used a few different yeast strains typical for hazy IPAs, including London III, and Miller says he’s been surprised how much the beers dry out even with these less-attenuative strains. (Cambier New French IPA finishes around 1.007, or 1.7°P). The likely cause may represent a potential challenge when brewing with French hops.
“We’ve seen more creep from French hops than any other hops,” Miller says. “Our French hops creep like crazy. We did a double IPA a few years ago with some American and New Zealand hops and then Barbe Rouge, but we added the Barbe Rouge right near the end. We had to wait and wait for the beer to actually hit terminal because it was five days of creep after that. That’s something that I’ve talked to a lot of other French brewers about: You want to be careful with these hops because in our experience, they always creep.”
Miller says he believes the issue may stem from lower kilning temperatures, which allow more hop-aroma compounds—and enzymes—to remain intact. Cambier now dry hops at the start of primary fermentation to get creep out of the way. They also add a charge to the whirlpool.
While these new French varieties can be delicious in IPAs, brewers shouldn’t expect them to compete with American or Pacific hops in intensity. Instead, they have the potential to offer something distinctive to a portfolio of hop-forward beers.
“When you look into the IPAs in the U.S., you see a lot of… well, it’s always the same,” Heitz says. “It’s Citra, Mosaic. Some brewers would say French hops don’t work in IPAs, but [they] can work in combination with U.S. hops. We see a lot of brewers using Elixir along with Citra.”
Miller says he finds that French hops can bring balance to what some might find an overly aggressive hop profile, making an IPA more approachable to newer audiences. In Kanagawa, Japan, for example, Yggdrasil Brewing has seen success combining Mistral with Nelson Sauvin and Hallertauer Blanc for a nuanced, white wine–forward fruit presentation.
Hohentanner also shares some good/bad news, depending on how you feel about these flavors: These French hops will not provide intense dank, diesel, or onion-garlic notes.
Even if intensity is exactly what you want in certain IPAs, let’s not forget there are other beers in this style family. Almost every source for this story suggested trying French hops in pale ales, XPAs, and session IPAs. Their lighter bodies and lower overall intensities can allow these hops to put their best feet forward. At Cambier, for example, Miller brews a popular session IPA with Mistral and Citra, allowing them to play off each other.
As an Accent
French hops can also play off other ingredients, including yeast, malt, and botanicals or fruit.
At Itañeñe, Carrillo brews many beers that include fruit, such as watermelon, prickly pear, and mango, and she says French varieties play well with those additions, supporting their flavors rather than out-competing them.
Hohentanner also notes their compatibility with more rustic styles. Saison can complement the herbal nuances of Aramis and Mistral, he says; the latter also contributes some stone-fruit and wine-grape nuances. “You can also get a really nice raspberry character in sour beers if you dry hop them with Barbe Rouge,” he says.
The Trappist brewery Rochefort uses Elixir to great effect in its Tripel Extra (see their Ask the Pros). In Dayton, Ohio, Warped Wing recently brewed a tripel with Mistral and Elixir, providing an enticing interplay of fermentation notes and tropical and stone-fruit hop flavors, blurring the line between tripel and Belgian IPA.
Both Hohentanner and Carrillo, meanwhile, suggest trying Barge Rouge in a lower-bitterness American black ale or stout—that variety can yield the flavors of chocolate-covered berries.
Houblons Inhabituelles
Despite the promise of new Alsatian hop varieties, the industry remains small, and its future may be uncertain without further adoption by brewers in North America and farther abroad.
Currently, there are 470 hectares of hops planted in the Alsace. About 200 of those are Strisselspalt and 70 Aramis, with the rest divided among the newer varieties. About 60 percent of these hops stay in France, with the rest exported abroad.
Hop France is leaning into the power of storytelling and novelty to gain visibility for their product, even while continuing to develop new varieties. (One promising workhorse currently on only 40 hills is averaging 14 percent alpha acids.)
For now, French hops remain largely untapped for adding curiosity and nuance to the hop profiles of modern breweries. You can’t seamlessly drag and drop them into every existing format—but with creativity, these hops can unlock flavor combinations that can hook drinkers looking for an elusive combination of excitement and drinkability.
“The argument is brew differently,” says Antoine Wuchner, director of Hop France. “Brew something differently to achieve a drinkable beer.”
French Hops: A Cheat Sheet
Here are the key Alsatian aroma varieties to know.
Strisselspalt
Alpha 2–2.5%, beta 4–6%, total oils 0.6–0.8 ml/100 g
Notes: Herbal, floral, spicy, Noble-like, chamomile, subtle citrus
Aramis
Alpha 6.5–8.5%, beta 3.5–5.5%, total oils 1.2–1.6 ml/100 g
Notes: Sweet floral, herbal, Noble-like, mint, spicy, subtle berry
Barbe Rouge
Alpha 7–10%, beta 3.5–4.5%, total oils 1.1–1.6 ml/100 g
Notes: Red currant, strawberry, raspberry, orange zest, kumquat
Elixir
Alpha 5–7%, beta 4.5–5.5%, total oils 1.8–2.2 ml/100 g
High thiols and total oils
Notes: Sweet citrus (tangerine), floral (rose), cognac, leather, sandalwood
Mistral
Alpha 6–9%, beta 3–4%, total oils 1–1.5 ml/100 g
High in farnesene (woody, floral) and geraniol (rose, citrus)
Notes: Rose, lilac, citrus, pear, lychee, melon
Triskel
Alpha 3–5%, beta 4–4.7%, total oils 1.5–2 ml/100 g
Notes: Floral, stone fruit, white grape, caramel