Those of you who have used Belma, how do you think it would work in a HellesBock?
I would have no problem using it to bitter. I have used it to bitter all sorts of styles. Nice clean bitterness.
For flavor additions it’s hard to find. It has some melon and strawberry flavor but you need a lot for the flavor to stand out. It seems more evident in blends with other hops where it rounds out flavors.
Bummer. I was hoping to get the “orange” character out of it. Doing a search I see not many positive reviews of this hop.
Keith, I think Saphir would be perfect for that. It’s low AA, and has similarities to Mittelfrueh, but also has a tangerine character that sounds great in a Helles Bock. I really like it.
Thanks man! Unfortunately I have 88 lbs of Belma I have to get rid of. I requested Mandarina Bavaria from my partner and he couldn’t find it and got that instead.
I have used it four times. The first two had belma in fwh, late-boil, and dry hop. There was a bit of the strawberry-melon flavor while the beers were young. That faded away pretty quickly. Since those two beers, I have used them as bittering hops and have been happy with that.
Everything I have seen regarding Belma says it shines as a mid-boil addition or a bittering addition.
The only time I’ve gotten good flavors out of Belma by itself is using it as a dry hop in brett beers. The gentle fruit flavors stand out better in the drier beer against all the brett barnyard flavors.