Chasing the Comet

Yakima Valley hops took a journey east in April, stopping in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for some experimentation.  Last hop harvest, the rooted team toured hop fields and harvesting facilities in Moxee and Toppenish. One variety in particular, Comet, stood out to brewers.

Comet is an older hop variety that was released by the USDA in 1974.  In its day, it was bred to be a higher alpha replacement to the varieties of the time, but this particular hop had aromatic qualities as well.  For those of you who don’t speak beer and just drink it, there are two types of hop–the alpha hops that balance the sweetness of the malt with their bitterness, and the aromatic hops that provide that excellent smell and flavor profile we have come to expect from a fine craft brew like an IPA.  The Comet can do both, and is known as a dual purpose hop.  Craft brewers really didn’t exist in the 1970’s, and the macro breweries of the time were simply interested in higher alpha hop varieties and not the aromatic properties of most varieties.

Comet enjoyed a brief stint of acceptance, and several hundred acres were planted in the Yakima Valley.  In the macro brewers’ relentless march to increase efficiency, new, even higher alpha varieties were soon released, and Comet’s acreage plunged. By the early 1980’s, no commercial acreage existed.

Fast forward to 2016, with the craft beer revolution in full swing, an ironic twist of fate begins to unfold.  Craft brewers prize aroma first, and value alpha levels second.  Hop varieties like Comet, once deemed “inefficient,” are suddenly being looked at again.

One cutting edge craft brewer in particular, Founders Brewing Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan, visited the Comet hop yard last fall with the rooted team.  Soon a plan was hatched to get them an experimental sized portion of Comet to try in a test beer.  In April of this year, a 44 pound box of hop pellets from that same Comet yard was shipped to Founders.

Several Yakima Valley hop growers and I travelled to Founders Brewing Company this week to follow the Comets on their journey from the Yakima Valley, to a single hop Comet IPA. Founder’s super talented head brewmaster, Jeremy Kosmicki, and friend Joan Montasell, from Mahou San Miguel Brewery out of Spain teamed up to create J & J IPA, so named after its two creators. The beer was described as having citrus and tropical fruit flavors with some melon and a hint of pine. We want to see for ourselves so we give it a try.
Right out of the gate, J & J IPA has a fantastic refreshing flavor. Very drinkable, light, with just enough fruitiness and hoppy flavor.  With a very light malt bill, the complex aromas of Comet shine through. Truly an out of this world experience for this beer drinker to follow a hop all the way from a field in the Yakima Valley, to a pint in Grand Rapids, Michigan!

As we sat in Founder’s large indoor/outdoor taproom with a table full of Founder’s people, we get to hear first-hand how they try a new hop variety out, qualities they look for in a hop, and the various flavors they might impart on a beer. Tasting a new hop for the first time is like Christmas morning to beer lovers!

A hop variety once relegated to the dust bin, looks to be on its way to enjoying a resurgence in popularity thanks to craft brewers like Founders. Unlike Halley’s Comet, which is visible once every 77 years, this Comet only took 33 years to come back around!

J & J  IPA is 7.7% ABV, 61 IBU’s, and 5 SRM