80 replies to this topic

[Big Nake]

I did an IPA today with Belma in the mix. Chinook for bittering, and Belma, Amarillo, and Citra equal parts blend for 25 and 5 min, with a whirlpool addition at 170 degrees.

I see this happening for me eventually where I mix them with other hops. I wanted to see how they would be by themselves and sort of "showcase" them but they will be combined with other hops eventually.

[al_bob]

Well, my initial tasting is very promising. Very bright hop flavor. Really nice bittering. I love Chinook as a bittering hop in IPA's. I still have to dry hop and cold crash. The London Ale yeast is living up to it's reputation of having oaky esters. I think this will be a really nice beer and I may want to build off of this and create a perfect IPA around this yeast. maybe this will be the one! Still early. Only 6 days old right now.

[Big Nake]

Well, my initial tasting is very promising. Very bright hop flavor. Really nice bittering. I love Chinook as a bittering hop in IPA's.

I still have to dry hop and cold crash. The London Ale yeast is living up to it's reputation of having oaky esters. I think this will be a really nice beer and I may want to build off of this and create a perfect IPA around this yeast. maybe this will be the one! Still early. Only 6 days old right now.

Nice. I also plan to dry hop mine. I am off on a vacation starting tomorrow so my Belma Pale Ale will be sitting in a cool tub of water while I'm gone and racked to secondary when I get back. Does yours taste like strawberries?

[al_bob]

I can't tell yet, but I do kind of get a tart berry flavor. I blended so it's gonna be tough for me to judge these but I think I'm getting some flavors different from what I know of Amarillo and Citra. I'll report back. I'll say this; I'm glad I over poured my hydrometer sample. I had most of a whole pint to drink!

Edited by al_bob, 27 December 2012 - 09:05 PM.

[Big Nake]

I can't tell yet, but I do kind of get a tart berry flavor. I blended so it's gonna be tough for me to judge these but I think I'm getting some flavors different from what I know of Amarillo and Citra. I'll report back. I'll say this; I'm glad I over poured my hydrometer sample. I had most of a whole pint to drink!

Yum. I'm looking forward to this beer now. I used 1056 on this one and 1272 on the Motueka Golden Ale that I made. I will have to come up with some sort of blend for the Belma hops next since I still have 13 ounces of them or so. Cheeahs!

[al_bob]

Tasted another glass last night, I couldn't resist. It was really nice. A real pleasant hop experience. The Belma has to be contributing to the flavor, cause it doesn't remind me of Citra or Amarillo by themselves. I'll put the recipe up soon. I think I'll crash it tomorrow to get ready to transfer. That's 4 days on dry hops.

[ColdAssHonky]

Forgot I needed to come back to this thread eventually. The Belmapocalypse IPA went through a vigorous fermentation and sat for about 2 weeks before kegging. Kicked that keg in two weeks flat, it was so damn good. I got a really great, fruity hoppiness from it. I will be planning a few more brews with this one. Probably a wheat next.

[al_bob]

I hope to get mine racked to the keg today. I'm looking forward to it. Mine has Belma, Amarillo , and Citra, with Chinook for the bittering.

[Big Nake]

I left mine sitting in the primary on the 1056 (in a bucket of 60° water) while I was on vacation. It's been in that primary now since December 20. One day next week I will probably rack it out to a secondary or keg. Glad to hear the Belma is making a good impression.

[al_bob]

I left mine sitting in the primary on the 1056 (in a bucket of 60° water) while I was on vacation. It's been in that primary now since December 20. One day next week I will probably rack it out to a secondary or keg. Glad to hear the Belma is making a good impression.

Mine has been in the fermenter since Dec 21 ("Waiting for the Mayans Hopocolyptic IPA"). After about 4-5 days of fermentation, I pitched in the dry hops per Bassers method with the Celebration. After about 4 days I cold crashed it, and haven't gotten to it yet. I'm getting ready to keg it today, though.

Not sure what I'll be able to tell about the Belma particularly, but the two pints I've tasted were really hoppy good. I could definitely get a little berry in the background. It seemed to be a real good mix with the Citra and Amarillo.

I'll post back later today with how the force carbed version tastes on the first day in the keg.

[al_bob]

Wow. Good news on the Hopocolyptic IPA. This thing tastes like candy! I need to lager it for a week, anyway, to get this yeast down. Since I never did secondary, I'm paying the price. I do however, tie a sanitized strainer bag to my auto siphon to put into the fermenter. It kept the hop debris out but not the yeast so much. If I can leave it alone for a week, I can likely get most of that out with one pint. It really does seem to have a berry, kind of sweet flavor. Granted, I have Amarillo and Citra, but this seems different from either of those. Bittering seems kind of soft, considering I used Chinook. I attribute that to the yeast in suspension from the transfer. It masks the taste, a little. Very good beer though. Very good. Although it is a little dry, the London Ale yeast left a nice sweetness and seems less dry and has more character than my last IPA with 1056. That may have been some error on my part. This beer is an aroma king, though. Maybe the Mayans were smart after all and just wanted to scare us into brewing a really good beer before we die! It worked, it seems.

[al_bob]

This beer will have a hard time making it long. I'm loving it. The bitterness and the tartness of the hop combo is starting to come out much better now that the yeast is dropping out in the keg. I'm pretty sure I'm doing this beer again tomorrow, and just drink the hell out of it in the next couple of months. One of my best beers ever. It may become a house beer.

[Big Nake]

This beer will have a hard time making it long. I'm loving it. The bitterness and the tartness of the hop combo is starting to come out much better now that the yeast is dropping out in the keg.

I'm pretty sure I'm doing this beer again tomorrow, and just drink the hell out of it in the next couple of months. One of my best beers ever. It may become a house beer.

I noticed in post 60 you mentioned that you brewed it but I never saw your full recipe. Did you post it? This next week, I will be taking my Belma APA out of primary and probably looking for a way to dry hop it, either in the keg or secondary. I am looking forward to sampling it.

[BlKtRe]

Had a all Belma beer for the first time from a respected brewer in my club. Very underwhelming hop flavor. He brewed his to the high end of an ApA, low end IpA. Another well respected brewer in the state is trying to unload his Maybe I should give it another chance.

[Big Nake]

Another brewer on Homebrewtalk just posted that he thought the "flavor" of this hop was "underwhelming" as well.

Quote: Ok, so I just cracked my first carbonated Belma/2-row SMaSH IPA. Belma is quite underwhelming on it's own. I want to brew it again, but with Conan like I read on a blog (I believe it was linked somewhere in this thread). The aroma was solid, but not intense. Pineapple and strawberry mostly. It has a smooth bitterness due to all late hops. Flavor is where I think this hop really falls flat. Even with hop bursting and a 2 oz dry hop charge there wasn't much hop flavor to speak of. Definitely not going to use this on its own again. I can see it playing well with other fruity hops like Citra, Nelson, Motueka and Calypso. I can also see it marrying nicely as a balancing hop for your piney/floral type hops.

That said, I have a bunch of these so I am planning one more beer with them and it will be a blend of Belma, Nelson and Citra.

Red Froot Loops
3.5 lbs Maris Otter
3.5 lbs Best Malz Pilsner
2 lbs White Wheat
2 ounces Thomas Fawcett & Sons Dark Crystal #1 (80-93L)
2 ounces Belgian Special B
¼ oz Belma pellets 12.1% FWH
¼ oz Belma pellets 12.1% plus ¼ oz Nelson Sauvin 11.8% for 15 mins
¼ oz Belma pellets 12.1% plus ¼ oz Nelson Sauvin 11.8% for 10 mins
1 oz Belma pellets 12.1% for 5
½ oz Citra pellets 13.9% for 2
Wyeast 1272 American Ale II

OG: 1.053, FG: 1.013, IBU: 42, SRM: 8, ABV: 5.2%

Mash temp 151-152°, all filtered water with a smidge of CaCl. If this one and the original one do not strike me as "excellent", I may just cut my losses (less than $5?) and come back another day.

Edited by KenLenard, 12 January 2013 - 09:26 AM.

[al_bob]

Here you go. I rally got into that beer last night. I bet I had 4 pints after dinner. I stayed up till almost 2am and I never do that. I really dug it. I may brew this same one again today since it seems like it may be gone soon.

It was originally going to have 2# of Munich malt but I mixed up the bag I went to borrow with the 2 row that I took to trade. So it was brewed as below. I have the 2# of Munich in this next malt bill in place of 2# of two row. I don't suppose it'll make much difference.

I gotta admit, I think I finally got my water salts in the right spot. I was assuming the RO water I was buying was close to distilled and used Brunwater to calculate, but my beers had an extreme minerally taste and just weren't right. This time I just cut everything I added the last time in half to see what effect it would have. It seems just about right. Finally!



Waiting for the Mayans Hopocalyptic IPA
14-B American IPA
Author: Al Scott
Date: 12/21/2012

Size: 5.5 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 231.31 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.069 (1.056 - 1.075)
Terminal Gravity: 1.017 (1.010 - 1.018)
Color: 12.78 (6.0 - 15.0)
Alcohol: 6.84% (5.5% - 7.5%)
Bitterness: 67.4 (40.0 - 70.0)

Ingredients:
13.0 lb Pale Ale Malt
1.0 lb Crystal Malt 40°L
0.25 lb Cargill White Wheat
0.25 lb Cara-Pils® Malt
1.0 oz Chinook (13.9%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
0.25 oz Belma (12.1%) - added during boil, boiled 25.0 min
0.25 oz Citra (15.6%) - added during boil, boiled 25.0 min
0.25 oz Amarillo Leaf 2011 (10.4%) - added during boil, boiled 25.0 min
0.25 oz Amarillo Leaf 2011 (10.4%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
0.25 oz Citra (15.6%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
0.25 oz Belma (12.1%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
0.50 oz Amarillo Leaf 2011 (10.4%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
0.50 oz Citra (15.6%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
0.50 oz Belma (12.1%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
0.0 ea WYeast 1028 London Ale

Schedule:
Ambient Air: 70.0 °F
Source Water: 60.0 °F
Elevation: 0.0 m


Notes
Yeast starter was stepped up twice with 2 liter wort additions creating 351 billion cells. Saving 100 billion for next starter and pitching recommended 251 billion cells per Yeast Calc.

Pitched at 68-70 degrees.

whirlfloc 1/2 tab

yeast nutrient 1/2 tsp

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.3

Edited by al_bob, 12 January 2013 - 10:08 AM.

[al_bob]

Mash temp 151-152°, all filtered water with a smidge of CaCl. If this one and the original one do not strike me as "excellent", I may just cut my losses (less than $5?) and come back another day.

I really think the key is to put them in a blend. I can really tell they're in there, but I don't think I would care for them on their own.

It seems like all of the best beers on that Belma thread involved a blend. I just guessed on the proportions and it seems really nice.

[al_bob]

Oh, and I dry hopped it with the same blend. I have to go and see how much. Seems like it was a half ounce of each.

[al_bob]

Actually, I think it was an ounce of each at dry hop. I didn't write it down, but my hop were all in 1 ounce packs.

[Big Nake]

After 25 days in primary (with 1056), I just racked this beer into secondary. Hmm, what a weird aroma I got from the primary and I can only attribute it to the hops. It wasn't "bad" or infected but it sure was different. I swear I detected sunflower seeds, soy sauce (or teriyaki) along with a vague fruitiness. When I smelled the beer in the secondary, it smelled like beer. When I put my nose in the primary with all that yeast in there, that's when I got this crazy aroma. Very weird. I currently have 9 full kegs and 8 beers in secondary so the line is very long for this beer. It could easily be March or April before this beer is sampled on tap.