Belma Hops

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bobbrews said:
I've used Warrior, Citra & Belma together four times now with different hopping schedules. I dislike what Belma brings to the mix. Belma is a citrusy/herbaceous mess with grassy/hay qualities. It makes an American IPA taste cheap. List a dozen other American hops and I guarantee they all taste/smell better than Belma in an IPA, Palisade being the exception.

Sub Belma for Amarillo and realize a better final IPA by 1000%.
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I have to say, that's been my experience with Belma in the few beers I've brewed with it. Not even very pleasant as a pure bittering addition.
 
My conclusion after brewing several with Belma in the boil is that it adds little and may take away something, but for a situation where you want a fruity aroma, it's a great addition to the dry hop. YMMV.
 
ong said:
I have to say, that's been my experience with Belma in the few beers I've brewed with it. Not even very pleasant as a pure bittering addition.
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I just used the last of my Belma for bittering and late/dryhop. Some Amarillo and Citra are in there as well for the late/dryhop. 13 oz. total hops.

It's a partial mash IIPA, because I only had a limited amount of leftover grain on hand at the time. Beata = Belma... because hopville doesn't have it in the directory http://hopville.com/recipe/1680942

Will report back with my last shot ever using Belma in an IIPA. I've never bittered with a whole 2 oz. @ 90 (+1 oz. @ 45 min) of Belma. Hopefully, the Amarillo addition will help... hopefully.
 
I brewed with belma for the first time yesterday. Decided to hop burst with 100% wheat.

Name: Wheat Burst
Batch Size: 6 Gallons
Boil Time: 90mins
OG: 1.047
IBU: 30
SRM: 5.8L

10.5lb Wheat malt
.5lb carawheat
.5lb rice hulls

.6oz Belma 12.1% @20mins
1oz Belma 12.1% @10mins
1oz Belma 12.1% @5mins
2oz Belma 12.1% @0mins
2.5oz Belma 12.1% Dryhop

I mashed at 152 and pitched wyeast 1056 into 60 degree wort.
 
Well,
I have made 20 gallons of this now.
I can say that the Belmas are a good bittering hop but not so good for flavor.
I would use a different hop for flavor additions.
 
justkev52 said:
Well,
I have made 20 gallons of this now.
I can say that the Belmas are a good bittering hop but not so good for flavor.
I would use a different hop for flavor additions.
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Couldn't agree more. For a while I thought something was wrong with my beer because of the artificial fruit like smells of strawberry and melon. I know it sounds good but it really is not, and have used Belma on its own and with Cascade. I just don't like Belma hops as strange as that sounds.....
 
I find it good for bittering if you are going with a fruity IPA or Pale.

I also think it's nice to dry hop with with other hops if you want a fruity nose to it. Has a nice nose in my saison, but past that.. doesn't have much versatility.

Not a terrible hop, but I doubt I'll buy anymore after I use up my 2 pounds.
 
I bought two pounds a while back and now the beers I made with the hops are on draft. I dry hopped a 5 oz keg of a pretty standard IPA withe 4 oz of the belma hops. It didn't add much, maybe just a mild grass/juicy fruit but nothing drastic at all.

I just put a small american wheat beer with only 20 total IBU on draft. I used 4 oz belma in the steap/whirlpool and I do find that in a subtle wheat beer the EXTREMELY subtle fruit flavor aroma is very nice, but you have to search for it.

This all being said, your best bang for the buck with this one is using it to bitter up some west coast IPA's or any other beer that needs a huge hop charge to bitter it. I will no longer be using this in an aroma/flavor or dry hop capacity. It seems wastefull.

I wouldn't say this hop is a failure, but I don't seeing it setting the brewing world on fire...thats for sure.
 
Thanks permo.
Did you ever try it between 15-5 min in anything?
I'm planning a hoppy Porter/Black IPA and had decided on the following schedule but open to suggestions.

Time. OZ AA » IBU
15 min 1 Belma 12.1 » 20.4
10 min ½ Cascade 5.5 » 3.4
10 min ½ Centennial. 10.0 » 6.2
10 min 1 Belma. 12.1 » 14.9
5 min 1 Belma. 12.1 » 8.2
1 min ½ Cascade 5.5 » 0.4
1 min ½ Centennial. 10.0 » 0.7
dry hop 2 Belma. 12.1 » 0.0
 
No bittering at all on a black IPA? Interesting and non traditional. I thin 15, shutoff and dry would do fine. Looks good. Love late additions.

My take on Belma. Already said it but I am drinking my new IPA fermented with Belgian yeast and a Belma citra dry hop. Smooth fruity and wonderful. No grassyness or other flaw. Warrior simcoe and Amarillo in the boil. Just a damn good beer.
 
I think the consensus is, don't bother dry hopping with Belma.
This has been my experience as well. I did an all Belma IPA. Packed so much in there it tasted almost like a fruit beer. The weird thing was there was so little aroma from a 3oz dry hop in a 5 gallon batch.
I do continue to use it for small mid-boil additions in pales and IPAs, it complements American and NZ/Australian hops well. There are too many better choices for dry hopping.
 
Effingbeer said:
I think the consensus is, don't bother dry hopping with Belma.
This has been my experience as well. I did an all Belma IPA. Packed so much in there it tasted almost like a fruit beer. The weird thing was there was so little aroma from a 3oz dry hop in a 5 gallon batch.
I do continue to use it for small mid-boil additions in pales and IPAs, it complements American and NZ/Australian hops well. There are too many better choices for dry hopping.
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Call me crazy! :D
 
Read through a lot of the posts on here and spoke to my LHBS guy about Belma today.
We both agreed that we were seriously underwhelmed with the hop in general, (especially in the lack of aroma area)

I've made 1 SMaSH with it (maris/belma) with an OG of 1.061 and an oz. @ 60, 30, 10, flameout, and dryhop belma additions.
Also a Saison(esque) brew with 10lbs pale 2row, 1 lb crystal and a 1lb of honey with a 60 minute addition, 15 minute and flameout.

I don't get get any of the strawberry/fruit/melon stuff at all. Honestly, I feel like I barely have any aroma at all on the SMaSH recipe.
My LHBS guy said as well that one of his buddies did an DIPA with it and he used a POUND of belma in different additions (most dry hop and past 10 minute) and he still barely had any aroma.

Is this strictly a case of "you get what you paid for?"
We all bought some dirt-ass-cheap hops to mess around and I seem to see very mixed reactions overall to the quality.
 
Well, count me in the minority, but I totally dig my Belma Pale ale. No bittering addition, just 1oz at 20, 10 and flameout and 2oz of dryhop for 40 IBU in my 1.051 OG pale ale. It is for sure extremely mellow in character, but when did that become such a terrible thing? Not every hop has to be citra- remember noble hops?

Anyway, I love the flavor I get out of it, and would definitely maybe pump up the aroma additions or combine with another flameout/dry hop, but the beer is damn tasty. I would buy this hop at $15/lb no problem, and it's $5. My guess is that it won't stay that way.
 
TNGabe said:
2005 maybe?
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Great answer TNGabe!

That said, I love my Pliny, Sculpin, Enjoy by or any of the rest of the big citrusy IPAs as much as anyone, but there is always a place for other flavors and styles in this game. That's part of what makes it fun. All opinions welcome, except, perhaps, those that exclude all others.
 
As a change of pace I used to to bitter and flavor a Foreign Extra Stout, I know call me crazy... Tasted pretty damn good, well enough to win last months interclub competition. Kinda gave it a kid playing in the grass kind of back note... I didn't go big on it, with .25 @ 60, 30, and .5 @ 10. I think this strange little hop is a bit misunderstood, it comes off more like a European than we typically get from the pacific northwest
 
daksin said:
Well, count me in the minority, but I totally dig my Belma Pale ale. No bittering addition, just 1oz at 20, 10 and flameout and 2oz of dryhop for 40 IBU in my 1.051 OG pale ale. It is for sure extremely mellow in character, but when did that become such a terrible thing? Not every hop has to be citra- remember noble hops?

Anyway, I love the flavor I get out of it, and would definitely maybe pump up the aroma additions or combine with another flameout/dry hop, but the beer is damn tasty. I would buy this hop at $15/lb no problem, and it's $5. My guess is that it won't stay that way.
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What was your grain bill like? What yeast?
 
I definitely get a strawberry/creaminess when I use belma for late additions. Spiciness when I use it earlier. Overall I think it is a nice hop which requires a little help. It would be great in a lighter beer for the people who normally go for bmc. Add a layer of flavor without smacking you in the mouth with it. Definitely not IPA worthy though.
 
othevad said:
Read through a lot of the posts on here and spoke to my LHBS guy about Belma today.
We both agreed that we were seriously underwhelmed with the hop in general, (especially in the lack of aroma area)

I've made 1 SMaSH with it (maris/belma) with an OG of 1.061 and an oz. @ 60, 30, 10, flameout, and dryhop belma additions.
Also a Saison(esque) brew with 10lbs pale 2row, 1 lb crystal and a 1lb of honey with a 60 minute addition, 15 minute and flameout.

I don't get get any of the strawberry/fruit/melon stuff at all. Honestly, I feel like I barely have any aroma at all on the SMaSH recipe.
My LHBS guy said as well that one of his buddies did an DIPA with it and he used a POUND of belma in different additions (most dry hop and past 10 minute) and he still barely had any aroma.

Is this strictly a case of "you get what you paid for?"
We all bought some dirt-ass-cheap hops to mess around and I seem to see very mixed reactions overall to the quality.
Click to expand...
I did 2 APA'a 1 IPA and 1 with Burton Ale yeast.
I'm Belma'd out. The IPA sucked. The APA's were just OK and with the Burton Ale yeast, pretty good. I used all Belma's. Won't be doing that again.
I guess they're OK for 5 bucks a pound. Just not good for flavor or aroma.
 
Out of my 5 attempts using Belma, this schedule for 5.5 gallons post-boil 1.072 OG wort seemed to work the best. An A-rated IIPA for sure...

90 minute boil (30 min without a hop addition)

boil 60 min 2 oz. Belma leaf
boil 30 min 1 oz. Belma leaf
post-boil 80 min 3/4 oz. Amarillo pellet (165 F down to pitch temps)
post-boil 80 min 1-1/2 oz. Belma leaf (165 F down to pitch temps)
post-boil 80 min 2 oz. Citra leaf (165 F down to pitch temps)
stage 1 dry hop 4 days 2 oz. Belma leaf (primary)
stage 2 dry hop 4 days 1-1/2 oz. Amarillo pellet (secondary)
stage 2 dry hop 4 days 2-1/2 oz. Citra leaf (secondary)

8 days total dryhop
 
bobbrews said:
Out of my 5 attempts using Belma, this schedule for 5.5 gallons post-boil 1.072 OG wort seemed to work the best. An A-rated IIPA for sure...

90 minute boil (30 min without a hop addition)

boil 60 min 2 oz. Belma leaf
boil 30 min 1 oz. Belma leaf
post-boil 80 min 3/4 oz. Amarillo pellet (165 F down to pitch temps)
post-boil 80 min 1-1/2 oz. Belma leaf (165 F down to pitch temps)
post-boil 80 min 2 oz. Citra leaf (165 F down to pitch temps)
stage 1 dry hop 4 days 2 oz. Belma leaf (primary)
stage 2 dry hop 4 days 1-1/2 oz. Amarillo pellet (secondary)
stage 2 dry hop 4 days 2-1/2 oz. Citra leaf (secondary)

8 days total dryhop
Click to expand...

With that recipe, I would bet it would be safe to say if you took out the belma and used almost any other hop it would have turned out good as well
 
CityOChampBrew said:
With that recipe, I would bet it would be safe to say if you took out the belma and used almost any other hop it would have turned out good as well
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Pliny the Elder is rather Columbus heavy, yet contains 12-13 oz total hops per 5 gallons post-ferment. If you swapped the CTZ out for Sorachi Ace or Amarillo, you'd notice. Trust me.
 
Just had our first taste of an IPA with Belma.

11# 2-row
1# munich
12 oz C60
(I think this is exactly the grain bill from Edwort's Bee Cave IPA)

Hop schedule:
2.5 oz Belma FWH
1 oz Cascade 15 min
1 oz Belma 10 min
1 oz Citra 5 min
Dry hopped for 6 days with 1 oz each of Cascade and Citra

Fermented with S-05 at 65.

Came out to 70 IBUs. Tastes amazing. The belma added a little creaminess, there's a lot of pine and citrus in it as well. Also I'm getting a bit of spiciness too. The verdict is that there doesn't seem to be much from the Belma, but it worked well as a bittering hop.
 
Belma smells just like Magnum to me, and I consider Magnum a good buttering hop (granted, I've never tried Magnum any other way).

I made a zombie dust clone with Belma and it was a struggle to finish the keg. Smelled great right after the dry hop, but that went away before the keg was even fully carbed.

This fall was my first bulk hop buy and I went a little crazy. Not sure what I'm gonna do with 4 lb of Belma. Learned my lesson there. But at least I got plenty of simcoe, cascade, centennial, Amarillo, and citra!
 
mragin said:
Belma smells just like Magnum to me, and I consider Magnum a good buttering hop (granted, I've never tried Magnum any other way).

I made a zombie dust clone with Belma and it was a struggle to finish the keg. Smelled great right after the dry hop, but that went away before the keg was even fully carbed.

This fall was my first bulk hop buy and I went a little crazy. Not sure what I'm gonna do with 4 lb of Belma. Learned my lesson there. But at least I got plenty of simcoe, cascade, centennial, Amarillo, and citra!
Click to expand...

Open the bags up and age them for use in sours!
 
Ouch - use in sours sounds a bit steep.

I dry hopped 2 batches of the same brew - 1 with cascade & centennial dry hop & 1 with just belma. The batch with belma dry hop was far better! No expert opinion here but my experiences so far have been really good. Got a rye IPA on its way to the keg so more info to come...
 
FarmerTed said:
Here's my first Belma recipe (brewed it today):

12 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter, Warminster (4.5 SRM) 90.6 %
16.0 oz Acid Malt (3.0 SRM) 7.5 % (added 30 min into a 50 min mash)
4.0 oz White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) 1.9 %
0.25 oz Belma [11.30 %] - First Wort 60.0 min 9.5 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) -
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 mins) -
1.00 oz Belma [11.30 %] - Boil 10.0 min 12.6 IBUs
1.75 oz Belma [11.30 %] - Boil 1.0 min 2.6 IBUs
1.0 pkg Brettanomyces Lambucus (Wyeast Labs #5526) [50.28 ml] -
1.0 pkg French Saison (Wyeast Labs #3711) [50.28 ml] (starter made with both yeasts mixed together)

The O.G was 1.063 (~5.7 gallons), and I pitched the two yeasts at 65 F. Looking forward to drinking this sucker in a few months! The wort actually had a nice little acidic tang to it.
I did a similar saison-brett last year with 3711/Brett B that finished @ 1.002, so this bad boy could end up being 8% ABV when all is said and done.
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I dry-hopped this with an ounce of Amarillo, and it has turned out really well. I'm not sure how much the Belma plays into it, but it's very tropical/citrusy. It was at 1.001 when I bottled it ~5 weeks ago. I'm cold-conditioning it now, and that has really helped mellow the beer out.
 
Urbanmyth, I enjoy sours but I don't know much about making them. Any recommendations on where I can learn more?
 
bobbrews said:
Pliny the Elder is rather Columbus heavy, yet contains 12-13 oz total hops per 5 gallons post-ferment. If you swapped the CTZ out for Sorachi Ace or Amarillo, you'd notice. Trust me.
Click to expand...

I never said it would be the same, my comment was more about how umderwhelming belma reviews seem to be.
 
thasnazzle said:
Just had our first taste of an IPA with Belma.

11# 2-row
1# munich
12 oz C60
(I think this is exactly the grain bill from Edwort's Bee Cave IPA)

Hop schedule:
2.5 oz Belma FWH
1 oz Cascade 15 min
1 oz Belma 10 min
1 oz Citra 5 min
Dry hopped for 6 days with 1 oz each of Cascade and Citra

Fermented with S-05 at 65.

The verdict is that there doesn't seem to be much from the Belma, but it worked well as a bittering hop.
Click to expand...

You didn't really try to make it stand out. You didn't even dry hop with any, what do you expect?

I think it's pretty mellow, but very fruity. Too much mellon and strawberry for me. If you like that kind of thing though, this is definitely your hop. I think this hop would be perfect for finicky SWMBO beer.
 
Did my first brew with belma last night. i used a total of 5 oz in the boil, most was < 10 mins. I plan on dry hopping with another few ounces. I have 5lbs, so I can afford to use crazy amounts.
 
BBL_Brewer said:
You didn't really try to make it stand out. You didn't even dry hop with any, what do you expect?

I think it's pretty mellow, but very fruity. Too much mellon and strawberry for me. If you like that kind of thing though, this is definitely your hop. I think this hop would be perfect for finicky SWMBO beer.
Click to expand...

That's fair. I should have added that we made a Saison a couple of months ago that was all-Belma, and I don't really get any of the flavors from that batch in the IPA.

The Saison was done with 3724 and hopped with an oz each at FWH, 5 min, and flameout. I got some creaminess in the mouthfeel I wasn't expecting for a beer so dry (it finished at 1.004) and some floral notes in the aroma but it ended up being pretty tame otherwise. In retrospect I probably should have added more flavor hops.
 
urbanmyth said:
What's that supposed to mean?
Click to expand...

traditional sour beers used hops that are aged to lose all their flavor and only utilize the preservative qualities. saying they're good for sours to me means they're useless. just go big and they'll do the trick! here's my latest brew i whipped up 2 weeks ago:

corny rye ale - OG 1.059 ~6% abv
3 lbs Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 4 5.2 %
30 lbs BD Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 5 51.7 %
15 lbs Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 6 25.9 %
10 lbs GW Pale Malt (2 Row) US (4.0 SRM) Grain 7 17.2 %

4.00 oz Belma [12.10 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 31.3 IBUs
3.00 oz Belma [12.10 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 9 14.2 IBUs
3.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 10 11.8 IBUs
3.00 oz Belma [12.10 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 12 8.5 IBUs
3.00 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 13 8.4 IBUs
4.50 oz Belma [12.10 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 14 7.0 IBUs
1.50 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 15 2.3 IBUs
3.00 oz Belma [12.10 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 17 0.0 IBUs
4.25 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 16 0.0 IBUs
 

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