Hop Development Ale, aka HDA, is a new series of pale ales trialing new and unusual hop varieties. This, the first in the series, uses Ernest hops. Although Ernest is over 100 years old it has intense and fruity aromas more regularly associated with modern American hops.

Ernest is named after its breeder, Prof Ernest Salmon. It was selected at Wye College, Kent as a seedling under code OZ97a in 1923 from seed collected in 1921 as an open-pollination of Neomex AA7. It was in production on farm trials in 1957 and 1958. It was used in brewing trials conducted by the Institute of Brewing in 1959 (reported 1960) but it was considered to be a poor substitute for the control variety, Fuggle, due to its “strong, coarse, American aroma”.