Hop GrailOf the new US beer labels approved from September 1 to October 29 this year that name a hop, 33% name a New Zealand hop: 170 of 522 beers. On the same dates in 2019 it was 13%: 59 of 466.
The rise comes as New Zealand exporters face a tougher American market. RNZ reported in April that tariffs, production costs and shipping have made the US harder and more expensive for them to reach. The labels can't say how much hop is moving. They do show more American brewers putting New Zealand on the can.
What changed
- Nelson Sauvin went from 5.2% of hop-naming beers to 15.3%. It's now the third most-named hop, behind Citra and Mosaic.
- Riwaka went from 2 beers to 42.
- Nectaron went from none to 44, ahead of Australia's Galaxy at 32.
- Citra grew too, from 28.3% to 37.0%, and it's still the most-named hop by a distance. Mosaic held at about 22%.
- Some old favorites slipped. Amarillo fell from 12.0% to 5.9%, Galaxy from 11.8% to 6.1%, and Centennial from 9.4% to 5.9%.
It isn't one brewery
77 breweries named a New Zealand hop on these dates, up from 39. That's out of 211 breweries naming any hop, against 235 in 2019. Take out the brewery with the most New Zealand-hop beers in each year, and the shares are still 29.5% and 11.8%.
What this doesn't show
A label isn't a recipe. This counts what brewers chose to name, and most don't name a hop at all: 17.9% of beers did on these dates this year, up from 13.7% in 2019. It doesn't measure how much of a hop went into a beer, or how much of it sold. A hop on the can may be there as much for the buyer as for the brew.
The labels show the shift, not the reason. And a label approval isn't a release: it says the label was approved, not that the beer was brewed or reached a shelf.
The numbers
Share of beers naming a hop on labels approved September 1 to October 29. There were 466 such beers in 2019 and 522 in 2026, and one beer can name several hops. New Zealand hops are marked NZ.
| Hop | 2019 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Citra | 28.3% (132) | 37.0% (193) |
| Mosaic | 22.7% (106) | 21.3% (111) |
| Nelson Sauvin NZ | 5.2% (24) | 15.3% (80) |
| Simcoe | 12.4% (58) | 14.6% (76) |
| Nectaron NZ | 0% (0) | 8.4% (44) |
| Riwaka NZ | 0.4% (2) | 8.0% (42) |
| Motueka NZ | 4.5% (21) | 7.5% (39) |
| Cascade (not labeled NZ) | 7.7% (36) | 7.3% (38) |
| Galaxy | 11.8% (55) | 6.1% (32) |
| Amarillo | 12.0% (56) | 5.9% (31) |
| Centennial | 9.4% (44) | 5.9% (31) |
| Krush | 0% (0) | 5.7% (30) |
| El Dorado | 7.5% (35) | 5.2% (27) |
| Strata | 2.6% (12) | 5.0% (26) |
| Chinook | 4.1% (19) | 4.8% (25) |
| Idaho 7 | 3.4% (16) | 4.6% (24) |
| Rakau NZ | 1.1% (5) | 4.2% (22) |
| NZ Cascade NZ | 0% (0) | 3.6% (19) |
| Any New Zealand hop | 12.7% (59) | 32.6% (170) |
Every beer behind a hop is on its hop page.
How we counted
- The source is US federal label approvals for beer (TTB COLAs). Software reads the hop names off the label art, and we merged variants by hand, such as “Nelson” and “Nelson Sauvin”. A few will be misreads.
- A beer counts once, however many labels it has: one per name per brewery.
- Why these dates: 2019 is the only earlier year we've read at scale, and most of its spring and summer is still unread. Our 2026 coverage starts in late May. September and October are the dates both years share.
- Coverage isn't equal. We've read about 90% of the labels from these dates in 2026 and about 60% from 2019, so 2019 is a large sample, not a full count.
- “New Zealand hop” means Nelson Sauvin, Motueka, Riwaka, Nectaron, Rakau, Wai-iti, Waimea, Pacific Jade, Pacifica, Pacific Sunrise, Moutere, Southern Cross, Green Bullet, Taiheke, Peacharine, Superdelic, Pacific Gem, Kohatu or Wakatu, any Freestyle Hops variety, or a label that says NZ or New Zealand.
- Left out: any label a brewery asked us to hold back or take down.
- Figures are as of November 1, 2026 and won't change on this page.
Writing about this? Use the numbers with a credit and a link to this page. For the full data, email admin@hopgrail.com.
Edited by Curtis Vaughan. How we get this data