Back to science! Yeast, that fermenting wonder that can give a beer the aroma of banana without a banana in the vicinity of the brew kettle might just be able to replicate hop flavors. (Keep in mind, not all, just some)
You can read about the breakthrough work HERE but the upshot is that a genetically modified yeast could produce flavors that mimic Beers with hops. The question is how long would it take to, say, have a Citra Yeast or a Three-C’s yeast. Probably quite some time.
This research even has the imprimatur of brewing professor, Charlie Bamforth from the University of California, Davis as co-author on the paper.
Whether brewers will replace the dry hopping late in the brewing process with a GMO yeast with DNA from mint and basil plant is a whole different experiment.