Why does anyone take the Mayan end of the world seriously, when the end of their world came 520 years earlier than they expected. That’s not a stellar record (pun intended).
Speaking for myself, No I do not take that date as having any credence
to the end of days. But for those that do (i actually know someone who
does) you better get brewing!
I was going to do an all Belma Hop Brew. Thinking several additions with
a full ounce going in for the entire boil including FWH. Based upon style,
O.G. target, and not a huge hop presence. Prolly aim for 35-45 IBU.
I have some safeale 189 and some nice light pils malt…(thanx bb)
there are an awful lot of mayans out there who would beg to differ. The end of the empire may have happened 520 years ago but the culture persists today. that being said, alot of mayans think the obession with the mayan end of the world is pretty silly to.
I take the end of the world seriously (as a serious excuse to have a party, that is). :
I agree there are still descendants of Mayans alive today, though there are basically no pure-blood Mayans (if there ever were to begin with) and in every meaningful way they’re a different people today than they were pre-contact. A lot of Mayans these days are protestants, though that’s a fairly recent development. Many were Catholics before that.
Hyd. Tube of primary to secondary transfer with this beer was an interesting
Orange/tangerene note on the back of the tongue. Nice …pleasant
All belma IPA… done. Haven’t bottled yet tho.
Please keep us posted how the IPA turns out. I picked up a pound a month ago when I stopped there. I’m thinking of using them in a lighter beer (blonde or wheat) as suggested earlier.
Bruce
I brewed the 2008 Big Brew recipe (Fill in the Hop Blonde Ale) a few days ago.
For 12 gallons I added one ounce at 60 minutes, 2 ounces at 3 minutes and 2 ounces at knockout. I have found that I get a fair amount of flavor even with the very late additions as my wort chiller takes almost 15 minutes to cool everything down.
I will rack it over in a week and determine at that time if it should be dry hopped, or even just dry hop one of the carboys and not the others.
Will provide tasting notes at that time.
More on Belma hops. I just popped the second bottle.
http://alcaponejunior.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/belma-ipa/#comment-1204
[QUOTE]OK. It’s been a week, and I’m trying the second bottle of this one.
It’s better conditioned now, although will probably still do well with another week or so of conditioning.
Appearance is pretty murky, light brown or dark tan, with a great, lasting head and awesome lacing. Appearance could improve.
The bitterness is about right for what I had in mind. It’s not overly bitter, but is sufficiently so. I didn’t intend it to be heavily bitter.
Flavor is a bit less that what I’d find optimal for an IPA. I think it needs something besides just belma… cascade might be nice. Late hopping with belma probably isn’t the way to go.
Aroma is pretty good, but if you compare it to something like Ruination, this beer falls short.
Now I know I’m not an expert like Mitch at Stone, but I think this beer was done properly enough to draw reasonable conclusions from this tasting.
I am going to say that belma is a good bittering hop, good for milder beers that don’t require that sharp, pungent, in-your-face hop forwardness like AIPAs or DIPAs. It would probably be better suited to English styles, mildly hopped American styles, or as a general bittering hop.
I do like the aroma that the dry hops lent to this beer, but it’s again not really IPA worthy. Again, good for styles that are less hoppy than IPAs.
I am still quite pleased with my Belma hops, I just won’t use them for super cheep IPA hops. They won’t go to waste, however. I will use them as a general bittering hop, or a hop for milder beer styles. Short of doing a side-by-side with magnum or warrior, I can’t say whether they’d really be a replacement. I don’t intend to do such a comparison, BTW! These will be fine for bittering.
In the end, I’ll drink every one of my somewhat milder than expected Belma IPA. It was a good experiment, and the beer is pretty good anyway.[/QUOTE]
Was wondering about the Belma. Thanks for posting.
Dave
Is anybody noticing any desirable/undesirable flavors coming from using belma as a bittering hop? I’d love to be able to use some of the belma I ordered as a general bittering hop but I don’t necessarily want to see those flavors come through in all of my beers.
My ESB came out very clean. I would not be afraid to bitter anything other than a Pil’s. I think this hop will find a place with Belgian style beers.
Ok update as I just tapped the Pilsner/Belma Keg and she is a good one.
The mandarin/cutie orange flavor is definately there. I do Like this hop.
And IMO it would be great in a belgian. I hope Puterbaugh keeps it in
production. The intro price was unbeatable.
I’ve used it in a couple beers for bittering and one used it for bittering, flavor and aroma. No weird off flavors that I detect. I also used it as a dry hop in a wild beer. Pairs really well with that funky brett character.
I put it in about a 40 ibu ESB and it is not as orangy in flavor but it did
balance the malt. No weird off flavors. I do prefer the noble hop over this FWIW
I’m finally gonna use what you sent in an ale this weekend. I’ve been out of beer for about 6 weeks… no gumption to brew but need is overpowering my procrastination. 8)
I’ve only used Belma once in a Saison. I used only 4 oz. in a 5 gal. batch and got no hop flavor that I could detect. It was an OK beer, my review is here: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=15143.msg192302#msg192302
I suspected that the Total Oil (Mls. per 100 grams dried hops) was low so I emailed Hops Direct and asked. I just got the response: "The total oil content for Belma is 0.8" So it is on the low side. He did not give me a breakdown on the types of oils and their percentages. Next time I will really load up the flavor additions.
For a comparison, Citra is 2.2-2.8.
After reading your thread, I realized that I neglected to say I used Lager yeast with the belma
and got that orange thang. (s-189 thanks boulderbrewer) so yes maybe it is a contribution
from the yeast hop interaction that plays interesting with Belma… :-\