Yes, hops and hemp are botanical cousins. Both belong to the same plant family, Cannabaceae, making them more closely related to each other than to any other commercially grown crop. DNA analysis estimates the two plants diverged from a common ancestor roughly 28 million years ago, which in evolutionary terms makes them fairly close relatives.
How Hops and Hemp Are Classified
Hops (Humulus lupulus) and hemp (Cannabis sativa) sit side by side in the Cannabaceae family. This is the same type of relationship that oranges and lemons share within the citrus family, or wolves and foxes share within Canidae. The connection isn’t superficial or coincidental. It’s rooted in shared genetics, confirmed through chloroplast DNA analysis that traces both plants back to the same ancestor.
That 28-million-year split is long enough for the two plants to develop very different appearances and chemical profiles, but short enough that they still share several distinctive biological features you won’t find in most other plant families.
What They Have in Common
The most striking shared trait is how both plants produce their valuable compounds. Hops and hemp both grow tiny, mushroom-shaped glands called glandular trichomes on their flowers. These microscopic structures act like miniature chemical factories, producing and storing the aromatic oils and resins that make both plants commercially important. In hemp, trichomes produce cannabinoids and terpenes. In hops, they produce the bitter acids and aromatic oils that flavor beer.
Both plants are also dioecious, meaning individual plants are either male or female rather than carrying both types of reproductive organs on the same plant. This is relatively uncommon in the plant kingdom. Only about 6% of flowering plant species are dioecious. For both crops, the female flowers are the commercially valuable part: hop cones for brewing and hemp flower buds for cannabinoid extraction.
The two plants also share several aromatic terpenes. Beta-myrcene, alpha-humulene, and beta-caryophyllene are among the most abundant aromatic compounds in both hop cones and hemp flowers. These overlapping terpenes are what give certain beer styles and hemp strains similar earthy, herbal, or slightly spicy aromas.
Where They Differ Chemically
Despite the family connection, hops and hemp diverge sharply when it comes to their signature compounds. Hemp produces more than 60 different cannabinoids, including THC and CBD, which interact with the body’s endocannabinoid system. These compounds are what give cannabis its psychoactive and medicinal properties.
Hops cannot make cannabinoids at all. They lack the specific enzymes needed to convert a precursor molecule (cannabigerolic acid) into THC, CBD, or any other cannabinoid. So despite occasional marketing claims, you won’t get CBD from hops. It’s biologically impossible for the plant to produce it.
Instead, hops produce their own unique class of compounds: alpha acids (like humulone) and beta acids (like lupulone), along with xanthohumol. Alpha acids are what give beer its characteristic bitterness when they break down during brewing. Xanthohumol has attracted research interest for its antioxidant properties, but it has no relationship to cannabinoids.
Different Terpene Profiles
While both plants produce terpenes, they do so in different proportions. Hop essential oils are dominated by sesquiterpenes, which are larger, heavier aromatic molecules. In one chemical analysis, sesquiterpenes made up nearly 80% of hop essential oil. Hemp essential oil, by contrast, tends to be richer in monoterpenes, which are lighter and more volatile. This difference helps explain why hops and hemp smell related but distinct, similar to how basil and mint both smell “herbal” yet are clearly different plants.
Why the Relationship Matters
The genetic closeness between hops and hemp has practical implications beyond trivia. Researchers studying one plant often draw on knowledge from the other. Genomic studies of hops have informed cannabis trichome research, for instance, since both plants use similar biological machinery to manufacture their resins. Breeding techniques that work in one crop sometimes translate to the other.
The relationship also explains why the two plants share certain growing characteristics. Both thrive in temperate climates, both produce vigorous vegetative growth during long summer days, and both are harvested primarily for their female flowers. Hop growers and hemp farmers, despite working in very different industries, face some of the same challenges around pollination control and flower quality.
So while hops won’t get you high and hemp won’t make your beer bitter, the two plants are genuine relatives, sharing a family tree, a reproductive strategy, and a remarkably similar system for producing the aromatic compounds that have made both of them valuable to humans for thousands of years.