FreshieGalena
The clean American high-alpha bittering classic.
What it tastes like
Galena is a workhorse bittering hop — you meet it as clean, firm bitterness rather than as a loud aroma. Bred from Brewer's Gold, it carries that family's signature blackcurrant edge alongside citrus, herbal, and spicy-woody notes. For decades it was one of the most-grown high-alpha hops in the US, the quiet bittering backbone of countless American ales.
Best in these styles
Beers showcasing Galena
Galena is a behind-the-scenes bittering hop rather than a named aroma star — it's the clean bitterness in countless ales, so brewers rarely call it out on the label. We'll list a beer here only once its use of Galena is confirmed, not guessed.
Substitutes & relatives
If you can't source Galena, these bring overlapping clean-bittering character (per hop-merchant substitution guides).
Lineage & family
How Galena connects to the rest of the hop family — its parents, and the varieties it spawned. Trace the full pedigree in the Hop Lineage explorer →
All 7 descendants
Merkur · Apollo · Chelan · Super Galena · Mt. Rainier · Newport · Magnum
One of the most influential hops in the family tree — #19 by number of descendants (13).
Blood relatives
Genetically closest in the pedigree (may taste different):
Pedigree data adapted from the Rohwer (2021) hop family tree (CC0 1.0). Compilation, analysis & visualisation © 2026 Veryation · Freshie™.
For brewers — technical profile
Oil composition
History
Bred by the USDA hop breeding program in Idaho in 1968 and released in 1978, Galena is an open-pollinated seedling of Brewer's Gold. It was among the first American high-alpha "super" hops and became a dominant bittering variety through the 1980s. See Galena in the Hop Lineage tree →
Sources
So you can see nothing here is made up — every spec on this page is traceable to published grower data:
- Alpha & beta acids, cohumulone, oil profile, aroma: Yakima Chief Hops — Galena, cross-checked against BarthHaas and Charles Faram.
- Origin, parentage & release year: USDA hop breeding program (bred 1968, released 1978; open-pollinated Brewer's Gold seedling); The Oxford Companion to Beer.
Hop chemistry varies by crop year and region; figures are published typical ranges, not single values.