Nikobrew has these hops on sale. $10 per pound. http://www.nikobrew.com/columbus-tomahawk-zeus-ctz-pellet-one-pound/ Anyone use them?
CTZ isn't a blend. It's a way of acknowledging that Columbus, Tomahawk, and Zeus are all the same cultivar, so they are interchangeable. Edit: forgot to add... I have used Columbus. Probably the most 'piney' of the 'C' hops, IMO.
I use them all the time. However this is not a blend. They are the same hop with different names so often called CTZ for short. (I'm not sure if they ever determined Zeus is indeed the same as the other two, but if not they are really fricking close) (yeah, what he said)
Exactly this. Also, at $10 per lb I would snatch those up if I needed some more hops. I love the bittering properties of this hop as well as its flavor/aroma qualities when blended with others.
If you have the option, I recommend paying $14 per pound just about anywhere for the new 2013 crop when it comes out in 2 months. If you don't have that option, I'd certainly rather pay $10 per pound for last years crop than $1.50 per oz for last years crop.
I bought CTZ 2012 for that much from another supplier about 3 months ago. Used them with Chinook and Simcoe in an Imp Red IPA, really good. CTZ (depending on which you get the C, the T, or the Z) is usually fairly dank and pungent with a fruity kick. I get berries from the batch I got. Good for bittering to, I believe that RR uses it to bitter alongside the extract in Pliny.
Thanks for the knowledge. Nice to get corrected when being stupid without the usual snark you get elsewhere. Yea. Looking for an all-purpose hop to use the rest of summer while I try and nail down my process/efficiency with all-grain.... Thanks.
For my palate the CTZ hops have a flavor/aroma of dank; it is not a flavor I am particularly fond of. For this reason I personally do not homebrew with them. Of course you could use them for bittering but I typically use hops like Warrior and Magnum since they are higher alpha hops. I have read numerous posts where folks combine CTZ with other hops for flavor/aroma additions and they enjoy those beers. If I were to use CTZ later in the boil I would combine them with other hops. For those of you who like dank then a CTZ hop addition for flavor and/or aroma is the way to go in my opinion. Cheers!
For that purpose, I think last years CTZ at $10 per pound is the perfect choice. My main worry was that it was going to take you a year to get through the pound using it only as a bittering hop or something (although I do enjoy dry hopping with columbus myself). If so, your year old CTZ would be 2 years old when you finally got through it. With your accelerated use plan, you are getting to take advantage of a good deal with minimal draw back.
most definitely a yea vote from me. It is pretty much a mainstay in my hop forward beers. I can guarantee you that if you're a hophead that a decent percentage of your favorite commercial ipas & dipas are brewed with CTZ late in the boil. Here is a small pool of brewers with CTZ in their most acclaimed IPAs: Russian River, Bear Republic, Hill Farmstead, AleSmith, Green Flash just to name a few.
