FORT COLLINS, Colorado, January 14, 2026 – A new article in Brewing Industry Guide considers whether “dank” is an aroma descriptor that has value in the sensory evaluation of beer and hops.
In his Hops Insider column titled “Let’s Dive into Dank,” beer expert Stan Hieronymus observes that the term began appearing in the brewing industry only in the last 15 or 20 years. Some brewers find it useful, others hate it.
Hieronymus quotes Headspace Sensory’s Avery Gilbert as saying “It’s a weed-culture term.” Hieronymus also observes that quantitative sensory studies of cannabis aroma, including ones conducted by Gilbert, have not used dank as a descriptive option.
The article links the term to sulfur-containing volatiles recently discovered in cannabis, some of which smell skunky while others resemble ripe tropical fruits. Hieronymus notes that the main obstacle to adding dank to the lexicons for beer and hops is that it is difficult to define.
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