Target
A robust English high-alpha hop — pine, citrus, and spice.
What it tastes like
Target is a classic English high-alpha hop, long a bittering workhorse but increasingly used for aroma too. It brings robust bitterness with piney, citrus, woody and spicy character — a rustic, distinctly English profile.
Best in these styles
Beers showcasing Target
Specific beer examples coming soon.
Substitutes & relatives
If you can't source Target, these hops bring overlapping character.
Lineage & family
How Target 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 1 descendants
Endeavour
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
History
Target was developed at Wye College and introduced in 1972 as a high-alpha, wilt-tolerant variety. Descended from Northern Brewer and an Eastwell Golding male, it is a cousin of Challenger and was for decades a mainstay English bittering hop.
Sources
So you can see nothing here is made up — the published specifications on this page are traceable to grower / breeder data: