Amarillo

The Amarillo hop variety was accidentally discovered by Virgil Gamache Farms in 1990 when they found it growing alongside their Liberty hop field. They began cultivating it in 1991, then patented it as a new variety in 2003. It was originally patented under the identifier of VGXP01. It was released to the public shortly after receiving the patent. Amarillo is sometimes referred to as Amarillo Gold.

Amarillo is an aroma hop that is typically used in only late boil additions, including dry hopping.

Amarillo hops impart a distinct flowery, spicy, tropical, citrus-like flavor and aroma in beer. The citrus has qualities of orange and lemon, like Cascade, but much stronger. Other aroma descriptors include grapefruit, melon, apricot and peach. Amarillo hops offer solid bittering properties in the 9-11% Alpha Acid range. It also packs one of the highest myrcene oil contents (60-70% of total oils) of any hop. This extremely high Myrcene content gives it a very sweet citrus flavor and aroma that is closer to oranges than grapefruit. Amarillo has become one of craft brewer's most favorite hops. It is often paired with Citra, Simcoe, and Mosaic in many juicy IPAs and pale ales.

Some hops just taste better together. We recently analyzed [ 1 ] hundreds of the most popular beers to find which hops are commonly paired together. We found that Simcoe , Citra , Centennial , Mosaic , Columbus & Cascade hops are commonly used alongside the Amarillo hop. This is not a complete list, but should give you a good idea of what hops are commonly used together.

Amarillo is also sometimes featured as a single hop in beers to highlight its unique flavors and aromas. It can be added either as a fresh hop, or via hop pellets. Some popular examples of commercial beers that use 100% Amarillo hops in their recipes are Hill Farmstead Amarillo Single Hop IPA .