Indie Hops Turns Up the Volume: New Oregon-Grown Hop Varieties Making Noise at Hop City 2025
We had an absolute blast at this year’s Northern Monk’s Hop City. From the trade day pub crawl to the festival itself — and the afterparty too — it was a brilliant few days spent with fantastic people.
But beyond the great beer and good times, we also wanted to shine a spotlight on the individuals behind the hops — the growers and developers driving real innovation in the brewing world. One of those people is our friend Jim Solberg, co-founder and CEO of Indie Hops, based in Oregon, USA.
Indie Hops is both a hop breeder and producer, they’ve partnered with Oregon State University on the Indie Hops Flavour Project — a dedicated program to develop and release new hop varieties with bold, expressive flavour profiles. As well as their own new varietals, Indie Hops works closely with local growers like Goschie Farms and Coleman Agriculture to give familiar public varieties like Cascade and Chinook a distinct Oregon character thanks to the state’s exceptional terroir. Once harvested, hops from Indie Hops are processed at Indie Hops’ own pellet mill — the first of its kind in Oregon — allowing for greater control over quality and consistency from bine to bale to brewery.
As co-sponsors of Hop City 2025, Jim and his wife Anca flew in from Portland to meet brewers, enjoy some pints, and discuss the beers showcasing Indie Hops varietals which were pouring at Hop City.
“To come out here to Hop City Leeds and get to see a lot of the collaboration beers, which feature those hops that we worked on for ten years before we got to release them, and to have made their way across here to such a great beer culture and a great beer festival is fantastic.”
Stopping off at The Adelphi on the Hop City 2025 Brewers Trade Day Pub Tour supported by Northern Monk, Loughran Brewers Select & Indie Hops
Why Strata® Remains a Must-Have Hop for Modern IPAs and Pale Ales
Few modern hop varieties have captured the imagination of brewers quite like Strata®. Originally released by Indie Hops in 2018 after a decade in development, Strata® has become a go-to for brewers looking for complexity, versatility, and consumer appeal.
“Strata® has one of those intangibles that it's kind of hard to hard to describe what it is, but it's just a hop that when it goes into a well brewed beer people just are drawn to it. And they want to drink that beer over and over, and that’s the whole key to give people an experience they love.”
Strata® offers a rich, layered flavour profile with unmistakable notes of passionfruit, strawberry, cannabis, and juicy melon, along with a signature dank edge, with the hop being named for the many layers and depth of flavours it brings.
At Hop City, Strata® featured in the Northern Monk x Rivington Brewing Co. ‘Hop City UK’ DDH IPA, incorporated in both T90 and CGX™ cryogenic lupulin pellet formats, alongside Luminosa® and Lórien®. Similarly, Beak’s ‘Layers’ (8% DIPA) employed Strata® in both T90 and Strata® CGX™, again paired with Luminosa®.
CGX™ pellets are concentrated lupulin pellets created via cryogenic separation, delivering intense hop flavour via offering a higher ratio of desirable hop oils and resins with significantly reduced vegetal matter. This reduction leads to measurable improvements in brewhouse yield and reduced wort loss, particularly in heavily dry-hopped beers. Optimal usage typically involves substituting CGX™ for up to 25% of the T90 fraction. As with using any advanced hop products like flowable hop products, maintaining a T90 foundation is important as T90 pellets provide the full spectrum of hop character. Certain compounds present in the bract – such as terpenoids – are partially diminished in CGX™ due to the reduced green matter. Blending T90 and CGX™ allows brewers to amplify intensity while preserving the complex, layered character of the original Strata® profile.
“There are very few hops that can fill out an IPA all by themselves – Strata® is one of them.”
Dan Rybinski of Loughran Brewers Select & Anca Solberg of Indie Hops with a foil of Indie Hops Strata® CGX™ during a collab brew day.
Strata® Hop Pairing Guide: Enhancing Flagship Beers
“Fortunately Strata® is a hop that just plays so nicely with Citra® (HBC 394) and so nicely with Mosaic® (HBC 369) - and those hops are just in so many beers”
In beers like Verdant’s ’40 Watt Moon’ (8% DIPA) and Pipeline Brewing Co.’s ‘Dope’ (6.2% IPA), we saw great demonstrations of Strata®’s versatility in pairing with and elevating staple craft beer hops like Citra® (HBC 394) (in ‘40 Watt Moon’) and Mosaic® (HBC 369) (in ‘Dope’). Strata® has a complementary profile that can amplify fruit flavours and aromatics without overshadowing existing elements.
“This has a lot to do with the aromatics that Strata® promotes in a beer - and it will sometimes be Strata® aromatics - but Strata® actually tends to even kind of push up the aromas of the other hops it’s being blended with too”
In fact, brewers looking to modernise an existing core IPA or Pale Ale could well find Strata® to be a neat plug-and-play upgrade – by substituting out a little of their existing default hops and adding a small Strata® tweak to keep the recipe fresh as trends – and drinkers palates – continue to evolve.
“It's why in the States we've seen a lot of breweries, even in their flagship IPA, modernizing those IPAs by just bringing a little bit of Strata®.”
Brewing with Strata® for the First Time? Try a Single Hop Pale or IPA
“Start with Strata®. It's probably going to be the one that plays with others the best, I would say. Whilst it probably doesn't detract too much away from other hops in a core beer, what it will do is it will amp up those IPAs, those Pale Ales and those really hop forward styles and just make the other flavours and hops really sing, you know?”
New to Strata®? Jim recommends trying it out in a Strata® single hop beer first to really get a sense of the depth of flavours and layers to the hop, as “that’s where the name came from was all the multiple layers of flavour and aroma. And that’s how you’ll discover what all is in the hop as you’re using it throughout the brewing process, all those different points, and you can see what you’re able to pull out.”
“A Strata® single hop beer is a nice starting point for a brewer to say, “oh man, I got some ideas. Now what I can do?””
Our own Dan has seen brewers enjoy great success with Strata® single hop beers. “if you stick it in a 4% or 5%, cask pale ale single session hop like that it would be amazing to see. Like Jim said, the layering, flavours and the differences, using it a little bit hot side, then some in the tank. Really for me It’s all about those fresh strawberry watermelon, and a little bit of passion fruit just backed up with enough dank and cannabis”
Mark Cotterrell (Head Brewer, Beak Brewery) & Jim Solberg (Co-founder, Indie Hops) discuss the 'Layers' Indie Hops collab beer at Hop City Leeds.
Luminosa®: Citrus-Driven Hop with Bright, Fruit-Forward Flavours for Modern IPAs
Featured alongside Strata® in both Beak’s ‘Layers’ and ‘Hop City UK’ by Northern Monk x Rivington Brewing Co. has been one of Indie Hops newer releases – Luminosa®. This hop brings bright fresh notes to beers, with hints of peach-mango lemonade, candied orange peel, papaya and guava. There’s not much resin or pine to be found here, which makes it another versatile hop to have in your cold store, adding a zippy top end fruit forward citrus notes to beers.
“Luminosa® is one that's going to catch fire. This this year's crop I’ve been super impressed with. Great in a single hop beer where shines just as brightly as it does when backed up in a combination with other hops. It doesn't take away. It's got enough personality and presence to be the lead singer, but actually it’ll let the others come to the party too.”
Lórien®: A Versatile US Lager Hop
As a newcomer to the US-grown lager hop category, Lórien® enters a competitive space traditionally dominated by European noble varieties. However, it presents a compelling alternative—particularly for brewers facing ongoing supply constraints tied to poor yields and climate volatility in Europe. Beyond logistics, Lórien® offers an opportunity to evolve the flavour profile of modern lagers, delivering a clean, refreshing character with subtle fruit and citrus notes that can differentiate a brand while still maintaining drinkability. For brewers seeking to innovate without alienating traditional lager drinkers, Lórien® strikes a valuable balance between familiarity and freshness.
In the Northern Monk x Schilling Beer Co. ‘Hop City USA’ dry-hopped Italian pilsner, Lórien® beautifully fulfilled its brief to lend the beer a lovely clean feel, with a gentle finish of fresh melon and mixed citrus. As Jim commented, “In Hop City USA there’s Lórien® as a lager hop doing a nice job to saying, “hey, I’m not trying to steal show” in the background.”
Lórien® also demonstrated its versatility in the ‘Hop City Europe’ DIPA by Northern Monk and Revenant Brewing Project. Here, this ‘lager’ hop helped to bring an element of balance to the beer and round it out for a slightly gentler overall feel.
“It's a new combination of hops in the Hop City Europe DIPA with Luminosa® & Chinook. It’s a unique combination because with Lórien in there - we usually only see that in lagers. It's a lager hop. But brewers - they're great. They smell some flavours in the hop and they’ll say, “okay, great lager hop. But I want to bring those flavours into this beer and play around with it and, you know, get a unique result.””
Why Oregon-Grown Chinook Deserves a Place in Your West Coast Pale or IPA
“it's awesome to be able to see what Indie Hops are doing with those classic US hops that everyone knows and loves. They’re really bringing them into a different light in a different kind of profile, and I think it gives brewers more tools to make different beers with really exciting flavour combinations.”
Alongside Indie Hops developed exclusive varietals, it might be easy to assume that a classic public hop like Chinook might get lost in the mix. Some might even be surprised how well it ended up holding up in the hoppy modern brewing climate of Hop City. Not so for us here at Loughan Brewers Select, where we’ve seen for some time how the magic of the fantastic Oregon terroir – and the talented growers there – can breathe new life into well-known US public hop varieties. For brewers exploring the resurgence in West Coast IPAs, Pales, and Pilsners, Indie Hops Chinook offers a cleaner, less aggressive bittering option with plenty of expressive oil character.
“As hops go, Chinook is one of those hops that does change its character a fair amount based on the growing region where it's been grown. And we just we feel that roundness of Chinook when it's grown in Oregon”
Indie Hops Chinook is grown in on alluvial farmland on one of the Coleman Agriculture fields – a seventh generation family farm in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. The Coleman’s Chinook field is a low-lying river bottom location with a 20-odd feet deep topsoil, and underneath is a glacial gravel bed where the Willamette River still runs. This unique terroir is the ‘secret sauce’ for the unique flavours of Indie Hops Chinook.
Jim Solberg at the Coleman Agriculture Farm in St Paul, Oregon
“Chinook from some other growing regions can be rather penetrating - very intense. Piney, and grapefruit components, and just sharp and one dimensional. But Oregon Chinook just spreads out into a much broader set of flavours. You'll still get that juniper resin component, but then you'll have - in addition to that grapefruit - berry components, some pineapple even comes in, and even some floral components. It’s just rounder, smoother and very enjoyable.”
Petteri Sikanen of Revenant Brewing Project shares a pint with Jim Solberg of Indie Hops & Jethro Holman of Loughran Brewers Select at Hop City Leeds.
Oregon Chinook works well as a dual purpose hop, with enough alpha acids (around 13%) to perform well on the hot side, and of course nicely fill out an 8% DIPA like the Northern Monk x Revenant Brewing Project ‘Hop City Europe’ collab. It’s a reminder to brewers just how expressive classic PNW hops can be when grown right and handled with precision.
“it's nice to see Chinook come in there teamed with Lórien® and Chinook. So there's a little bit of the of that gin Berry juniper platform, which was a really nice component to lay some of that now very common fruit flavours that people like in their IPAs. It’s super nice to see that combination.”
Audacia® – Your New IPA Hop?
Last but not least we have Audacia®, Indie Hops’ newest hop to emerge from the Indie Hops Flavour Project, and the one which Jim is the most excited about, and not just because it’s his newest baby. Audacia® is what Jim dubs a ‘sassy noble hop’ – stemming from its heritage (its mother is Hersbrucker Pure) and the fact it packs such a punch in beer. All this despite Audacia® being relatively low in alpha, (around 6%), which goes to show how strong the Strata® influence is in this hop – its father is a nephew of Strata®. For Hop City, we saw Audacia® in the Northern Monk x Schilling Beer Co. dry hop pilsner, where it brought a unique set of juicy berry components and flavours to the beer, as Dan commented “what a brilliant expression of Audacia® that is just so fresh and and almost juicy on the nose. It’s great. I’ve never drunk it in a beer like this before, in a lager”.
In the US, despite its slightly lower alpha levels than ‘default’ American IPA hops, Jim and the Indie Hops team are increasingly seeing brewers turn to Audacia® in their IPAs as they seek out the unique flavour offerings it brings to the market. For their showcases at Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) 2025, both Grains of Wrath and Fidens chose to brew IPAs using Audacia® – a West Coast IPA for the former and a Hazy IPA for the latter respectively, with both combining this new Indie Hop with Citra® (HBC 394) and Amarillo® (VGXP01 cv).
“So all the brewers are very familiar with those two hops – Citra® (HBC 394) and Amarillo® (VGXP01 cv). So they could really see what Audacia® did in these CBC IPAs. And it just stepped in and really laid the foundation for the beer. There was a beautiful kind of lilac, lavender floral nose that just drew you in. But then it transitioned to those juicy berries - blackcurrant, and lingonberry or gooseberries. These juicy berry flavours worked really well with those two standout hops as well.”
Anthony Dana of Fidens Brewing & Jim from Indie Hops with Mike Hunsaker Grains of Wrath. Audacia® featured in beers from both breweries for CBC 2025.
The above examples show how versatile this new kid on the block is, and of course as a low-alpha hop, Audacia® can perform exceptionally well in both hot-side and cold-side applications. It’s got enough alpha acid to achieve a decent IBU contribution and “clean bitterness” through early-kettle additions, and then can deliver its unique flavour contributions through late-kettle additions, whirlpool additions, and dry hopping. There’s a great opportunity here for brewers with this new hop, and its one our own Dan is excited about:
“one of the most exciting things for me, when I'm out talking to brewers and talking about hops is I've got the ability to really influence and change the way these guys brew and the way they think about recipes from the ground up. These are flavour profiles that really didn't exist in the UK market not so long ago. It's just fantastic to be there where brewers a hop like Audacia® for the first time and to just give Jim a quick call or email and ask him some pointers and tips and some examples of how to use it.”
Jim Solberg conducting sensory analysis on Indie Hops Audacia® during the 2024 Oregon hop harvest
Why Hop Contracting Matters – Especially for Emerging Hops
“It isn't just an endless vending machine of hops. You want them, you got to commit to them, basically, because someone else will.”
One of the key messages to take away from all our hops talk with Indie Hops has been the importance of hop contracting in securing your hop supply. If you want guaranteed access to new Indie Hops varietals like Luminosa® or Audacia®, you need to be contracting early – even in small volumes. In the early days as a new hop enters the market there’s just not enough acreage to meet global demand once a new hop catches fire. If you don’t contract, there’s a strong chance you’ll miss out.
Jim chats to Gail Goschie, of Goschie Farms. Goschie Farms are a Salmon Safe Oregon Hop Grower for Indie Hops.
“it's very difficult as a hop supplier to introduce new hop varieties to the market. It's a variety that nobody's worked with. You don't have any contracts. And so you have to just take your best guess at what's a volume that we can get out there to get brewers exposed to. When it really ‘takes’ quickly - when it's a hop it's really easy to see the benefits and how consumers react positively it's then really hard for us to change from a supply standpoint as the hops need time to grow”
Securing a small hop contract early – even at a pilot or seasonal scale – gives you the confidence to experiment without risking losing access to a new hop you’ve fallen in love with. And from a supply chain standpoint, it allows producers like Indie Hops to scale more predictably and support innovation at the brewery level. If you’re unsure, we’d recommend securing small quantities early and experimenting.
You might assume contracts are only for larger producers – but Jim stressed the importance of even modest volume commitments:
“Even if it’s just a contract for 20 kilos of a new hop, it really does help. You can reserve it then you have it to play with and see how it behaves for you. Then you can see If it's something you want to incorporate in more frequently in the future”
Will Avery (Loughran Brewers Select), Matt Dutton (Head Brewer, Track Brewing Co.), & Jim Solberg (Indie Hops) catching up at Hop City 2025.
Indie Hops: A Growing Toolset for Modern Brewers
A unique aspect of the Indie Hops Flavour Project as a hop development programme is its approach in only bringing hops to market when they’re ready, and, crucially, when they bring something new to the table.
“as a hop developer, you know, the last thing we want to do is just throw a bunch of experimental hops at the industry and see what sticks. We vet them internally, with some of our customers on a small scale, with beers in their taprooms, before we even make it available on the market. And when we decide to put a new hop in the market, we're already going to be giving it a name. We're there to stay with it. The reason we've chosen that hop is because it's a unique set of flavours. It gives the brewer another tool to get their customers excited about their beers.”
From flagship varietals like Strata® to up-and-comers like Luminosa® and Audacia®, the Indie Hops showcase at Hop City was a clear signal: Oregon-grown hops are delivering quality, consistency, nuance and new flavours that meet the needs of today’s hop-focused brewers.
Whether you’re looking to:
- Sub out overused blends like Citra® or Mosaic®
- Push into new flavour territory in an IPA with berry and floral notes, or create a lager using US lager hops
- Reimagine West Coast-style bitterness in your beers
The Indie Hops lineup gives you more than just new flavours – it gives you tools to shape how your beers feel in the glass.
Just don’t wait too long to lock in your lots.
