Loral®

Loral was developed by Hop Breeding Company and released in 2016, Loral® HBC 291 has a noble
heritage that straddles the fence between old and new world hop aromatics. It has the
ability to complement all beer styles, making it a very versatile hop in the brewery.

The Loral™ hop variety is one of the newest hops in the impressive run of popular hops (think Mosaic and Citra) to come out of the Hops Brewing Company (HBC); a joint venture between John I. Haas and Select Botanicals Group.

The sudden and intense interest in this hop variety stems from its ability to live somewhere between the aroma of the older hop “nobility” and the younger American varieties. It has the noble characteristics; herbal, peppery, floral. But it also carries an intriguing lemon-citrus and dark fruit character that makes it very unique.

Loral started out as a single plant in 2003; the offspring of a breeding program crossing Glacier with a male plant designated as HBC 9902, a son of the American Nugget variety. Loral has a noble French pedigree on its mother’s side, Glacier being the granddaughter of Tardif De Bourgogne.

Six years after it entered the breeding program it was selected for further trials. According to this news release from Haas, a single brewery played an important role in getting it selected.

During its ongoing breeding program, Loral was simply known as HBC 291. A label it was given during the patent application in 2012. It seems it was only when the new variety was prepping to go commercial that it was named Loral. The name is a combination of two of its aroma descriptors, lemony and floral.

After 13 years of experimentation and trials, Loral finally made her commercial debut in May of 2016. Its uniqueness makes Loral appropriate for a wide range of beer styles.

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