Less common hop varieties

[joel]

I'm a fan of NZ hops as I lived there and some good less common hops to experiment with. Pacifica is great, classy orange and spice when used late. Pacific Jade was great as a 'peppery' addition to a saison. Wakatu is like a European hop with added lime.
I just did a wheat IPA type thing with lots of El Dorado and Idaho 7. It was delicious and really different to 'C' hop IPAs, I got stonefruit and watermelon as well as more generic fruity flavours.
For the English ones Pilgrim is nice, a bit fruity and fairly subtle. I've got Endeavour in the freezer to try.

I've not tried Green Bullet but in NZ most think of it as a bittering hop, typical of commercial lagers. I found this description from a brewery who made a SMaSH with it:
"Green Bullet, a New Zealand hop with a high alpha acid content. Frequently used in lagers, it offers in this SMaSH subtle notes of spices and resin. Its palate first presents pleasant fruity flavours that then stretch out to a mild and refreshing bitterness."
But note with a bit of caution the comments in this thread from NZ (also some interesting info on other NZ hops, e.g. Super Alpha is the old name for Dr Rudi hops): http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/forum/topics/unfashionable-nz-hops

 

[jceg316]

Has anyone tried Green Bullet? I've got 100g sitting in my cupboard and I'm wondering how best to use it?

I've used Green Bullet a while ago. It's a NZ hop and was grown so brewers in that area could make lagers, and it is much closer in flavour to noble varieties like Hallertauer or Spalt than the fruity tropical flavours of NZ hops. At the time I was expecting those New Zealand flavours but got something very different.

 

[rank_frank]

Thanks for that. I'm not a great fan of fruity tastes in hops so it sounds like Green Bullet might be exactly what I wanted along with a bit of late Goldings.