Ok. Maybe I should have been a little more descriptive on the problem with getting New Zealand hop rhizomes.
First, you can search the internet, and a lot comes up, but only a relatively few suppliers actually SELL New Zealand leaf hops and pellets, especially the more uncommon ones such as Pacific Gem. This shouldn't come as a surprise. How many commercial breweries do you know that use any New Zealand hops? I can think of Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere harvest, and I'm sure there are a few others, but not many. In a nutshell, getting the hops at all can be difficult.
Getting the rhizomes is even more difficult. When the rhizomes went on sale in early spring this year, I did a broad search for any suppliers that might be selling them, but to no avail. I figured this probably had to do with the fact that most of these rhizomes would be coming from the Southern Hemisphere, so the growing seasons are switched.
However, it is also possible that NZ heavily protects their varieties, by only licensing them to certain growers and suppliers. This is not uncommon in the agricultural community. It could also be a product that no company has yet decided to go through the necessary US/Canada customs practices to get them here in the states. I've seen some posts suggesting that they are hard to come by in Australia, but no one seems to know why.
Anyone got any information on this? Has anyone even tried for any of these varieties before?
