Vic Secret is the Australian hop that delivers the most intense pineapple character I’ve found in a non-specialty variety.
John Brewster
John Brewster
John Brewster is the homebrewer and writer behind BrewMyBeer — over a decade of all-grain brewing, 80+ BIAB batches, and 1,000+ guides on fermentation science, water chemistry, hops, yeast, and homebrewing equipment. Every guide is written from genuine hands-on experience.
- Beer Brewing
Ekuanot Hop Substitute: Best Tropical & Berry Alternatives
by John Brewster 3 minutes readEkuanot is the hop that gave my NEIPA the melon and berry complexity I was looking for after Citra and Mosaic produced a good beer that felt predictable.
- Beer Brewing
East Kent Goldings Hop Substitute: English Heritage Alternatives
by John Brewster 3 minutes readEast Kent Goldings is the hop that defines what I mean when I say a beer tastes “British.” I’ve been brewing English ales for over a decade and EKG is in nearly every one of them — the floral, earthy, …
- Beer Brewing
Northern Brewer Hop Substitute: Classic Bittering Alternatives
by John Brewster 3 minutes readNorthern Brewer is the classic dual-purpose bittering hop that I associate with traditional American homebrewing from the 1980s and 1990s — it was one of the standard hop varieties before the explosion of specialty craft varieties, and it earned that
- Beer Brewing
Fuggle Hop Substitute: Traditional English Hop Alternatives
by John Brewster 3 minutes readFuggle is the hop that I associate more than any other with the character of traditional English ales.
Hallertau is the German hop that I consider the benchmark for noble hop character — the variety that all other European noble hops are implicitly compared to, and the one I use in Helles and Märzen recipes when I want …
- Brewer’s Toolbox
DIY Brewing Spreadsheet Setup: Build Your Brewing Calculator
by John Brewster 4 minutes readBefore switching to Brewfather I ran my entire brewing operation on a Google Sheets spreadsheet — recipe calculations, water chemistry, batch logs, ingredient inventory, everything in one workbook.
- Beer Brewing
Jester Hop Substitute: 8 Best UK Grapefruit Alternatives
by John Brewster 2 minutes readJester is a UK hop variety I started using after reading that it had been bred specifically to bring American-style grapefruit hop character into the British market using UK-grown hops.
- Beer Brewing
Brewers Gold Hop Substitute: Classic English Hop Alternatives
by John Brewster 3 minutes readBrewer’s Gold is one of those classic English hop varieties that has largely fallen out of fashion but deserves more attention than it gets from modern homebrewers.
Glacier is one of those American hop varieties I keep coming back to for English-style ales and session beers where I want hop presence without aggression.