Epic Brewery on Comet hops-
"April this year, in Washington DC at Craft Brewers Conference I meet Reggie Brulotte (sixth generation hop grower) and her dad, they told me about the new Comet hops they had grown. They had only harvest a few bales from a small plot. I ordered some on the spot as they sounded interesting, would suit the One Trick Pony series and they were likely to sell them all within the week.
They referred to Comet as a “retro” hop, as it had been originally released in 1961, and was extremely popular in 1980 & 81 when Guinness had a large contract for them. They fell out of favour partly due to their significant aroma, of citrus and wild American hop characters.
The decision to grow them again after 30 years was based on the desirable citrus aroma character of the hops. These days the focus has become more on aroma hops, which craft brewers love, than just hops for bittering.
A couple of months later the hops arrived in NZ and we brewed a batch, and it was first released at New Zealands premier beer event Beervana in Wellington in early August."
Sounds interesting, Mardoo...I've never heard of them before. US forums are mentioning mega-dank/herbal qualities too.
I'm all for forging new routes...take a path less travelled, and all that !