Firestone Walker Introduces "Comet" Single-Hop Hazy IPA

@JackHorzempa Too much work. I have the choice of 2 locally brewed and fresh choices in Trummer and Sudwerk The People's Pils.

 

Mixed ipa pack sounds great. I am in!

 

I fully understand you here. Instead of purchasing non-fresh Pivo Pils I will buy fresh Sterling Pig Shoats Pilsner, Mainstay Poplar Pils, Root Down Pils, Sly Fox Pikeland Pils, Troegs Sunshine Pils, 2SP Pils, Neshaminy Creek Trauger Pils, …

I will choose to purchase the freshest of the above (typically less than a month from packaging).

Cheers!

 

Just picked up at 12 pk for $14.99. Hand packed date is 11/23. The can dates are:

comet - 11/23
Mind haze and Union Jack - 11/11
Double Jack - 10/15

Great value and looking forward to the comet ipa. The propagator series has been good.

I am disappointed in the double Jack can date. That’s the beer in the pack that the freshness will impact the most negatively. But overall I am happy. Cheers

 

Stone wishes they had a beer like 805, not an IPA, and what fueled their brewery expansion.

 

Comet is highly variable. It was kind of a forgotten hop for a long time. Funnily enough, 3 years ago in Oregon I fell in love with Crosby grown Comet and replaced Simcoe with Comet in most of our beers that used Simcoe. From their Comet, I get some white grapefruit, slight pine, and floral aromas. After smelling it for the first time, I immediately contracted the max amount I could get. I was told that Ken Grossman was there earlier that day and also had high praise for it. This year, I had 1,500 lbs contracted and a bad yield due to harvest difficulties with the fires and some newly installed equipment malfunctioning resulted in us getting shorted a bit so I sampled some Washington grown Comet (not sure of the grower) and I wasn't sold on it. This year's Crosby Comet is my favorite yet. Today, I brewed a hazy IPA featuring their Comet and Michigan grown Chinook.

 

Great for business, I suppose, but I never drink it (805).

 

I have the same issue packaged on 11/10/20 then I open the pack and double jack is 10/08/2020 I am downright pissed. I'm glad to see you have 3 other fresh beers though.. I got hosed

 

I wonder if the motivation of this mixed pack is to get rid of the Double Jack beers that didn't sell?

Cheers!

 

I tried some 2 years ago in CA, it had enough flavor and aroma to be appealing, and easy drinking too. Since I like lagers, it was something I could like.

 

Who grew the MI Chinook? I'm on my third batch of an all MI Chinook IPA, pineapple is the dominate aroma, low or no pine.

 

Weedy,

Over the years you and I have had multiple discussions on how hop crops of a given variety can vary significantly. Variables of crop year, where the hops were grown, when the hops were harvested (e.g., early harvest vs. late harvest),...

Are there any hop varieties that you consider to be more stable vs. others? In other words are there hop varieties that you are less concerned about variability?

Cheers!

 

I'm partially to blame, my buddy and I have already ordered 5 cases of Pivo since the pandemic residential shipping started. Better than how I was having to get fresh Pivo...trip to either Paso Robles or Venice.

I too fall back to those options, but neither is as tasty for my palate and preferences as Pivo.

 

And if Pivo Pils is available to you fresh I can see why.

Permit me to relate a story:

Only once in my lifetime (so far) I saw a six-pack of Pivo Pils on a local beer retailer's shelf that was fresh (i.e., about 1 month old). I happily bought that six-pack! I took it home and immediately placed those beers in my refrigerator and over the next 1+ month I drank them. The first 2-3 cans I consumed were excellent with a subtle but noticeable aroma from the Saphir hops they use to dry hop this beer. The last 2-3 cans, while still good, were not the same - the hop aroma notably faded. I vowed that if I ever get my hands on a fresh six-pack of Pivo Pils I will consume all six of those beers over a weekend, I will not let those beers 'age' over a period of several weeks.

Ok, one more story. A number of years ago I attended a Smoked Beer festival at Yards Brewing (Philadelphia) and while the majority of the beers being served there were indeed smoked beers there were some non-smoked beers being served and one of the offerings was a keg of Pivo Pils. The beers coming out of that keg were glorious. I am guessing they brought in a very fresh keg. I went back to get at least 4 more pours of Pivo Pils that day which is kinda weird since I attended that event specifically to drink the various smoked beer. I viewed this fresh keg of Pivo Pils as a gift from God and I took advantage of the moment.

Cheers!

 

I never saw double Jack and it used to be a favorite years ago so when I saw it in the mixed back with the comet I was stoked and a must buy. But the fact that it was the oldest beer in the pack by a month is ridiculous.

 

I can really only answer that broadly. Generally, new hop varieties in their first year or two don’t have much variability within the year. Part of the reason for that is that the pelletizers/brokers have to buy from several growers to have enough volume to send through the pelletizer and so they blend several lots. But the year to year variability is frequently greater because the growers don’t have much data on the normal pick window or how the hops will react to a wide variety of growing conditions. As more acreage gets planted, more variability is expected.

Frequently I see people talking about YCH hop school and sharing stuff they learned, but YCH is, in my opinion, a scam. They tell people how consistent x variety is because they control all of it, but there’s so much garbage that comes from them. I am 100% free of YCH hops now and couldn’t be happier.

 

Hop Head Farms. I always get big pineapple and a hint of basil from them.

 

As always, thanks for sharing your thoughts.

As a follow-up, what about non-new hops like Centennial, Cascade, etc. Do these 'heritage' hop varieties tend to be more stable from a hop aroma/flavor perspective?

Cheers!

 

I have used MI Chinook from Top Hops near Oxford, MI Local Hops in Williamsburg, the last from MI Hop Alliance in Omena. Sort of from SE to the pinky of the Mitten.

Haven't found them from Hophead Farms.

 

Hop school is fun, but you realize it is promotion for YCH. You also realize that YCH is a Co-op of the farms that are owners. It is a business.

I've heard good things about Crosby over the years. As they are in the Willamette Valley, Comet will be different from Comet in Yakima. That last is for others, not you.