What Do BELMA Hops Taste Like? - SMASH Beer Experiment
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- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- The SMASH beer list grows longer when we try out BELMA hops this week.
You know the drill here. John brews a one gallon batch of SMASH beer. He spreads one ounce of hop into the beer dividing and spacing it out so we can evaluate bittering qualities as well as aroma and flavor.
BELMA was an interesting hop. It reminded us a lot of Noble Hops. It was spicy, earthy and had a touch of lingering resin like notes. Its commercial descriptors mention certain fruit notes which we did not pick up.
Tell us about your Belma Hop experiences in the comment field.
CHEERS!
#BelmaHops #SMaSHBeer #brewdudes #HopsReview
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Wake up babe, new Brew Dudes video just dropped
Woot, woot! Cheers! -Mike
Did the fridge go kaput?!
No, but it was getting old and tired. I had to unplug it for the shoots because it was louder than I wanted. I would routinely forget to plug it back in. I don't really even make full use of the 4 faucet option and I have always hated an upright fridge as a kegorator because of the limited space for dealing with tubing and connectors. I am cleaning up a bit of my beer/bar space and it was time for it to go. Cheers! -Mike
I bought some Belma years ago after reading the description and wanting to use them in a strawberry like beer (not adding real strawberries) and was super disappointed in the final result, but I did find that they are excellent bittering hops! Super clean! I also found out after trying them again, but this time VERY heavy handedly, that you can squeeze some strawberry out of them, but at the rate you have to use, it seems wasteful. I'm sure you can find another hop out there that gives you the strawberry with a lot less on the scale. Anyway...use them to bitter.
Hey Dudes!
I used Belma in a Voss fermented raw IPA I brewed over the summer. Used 10 oz. of hops in 5 gals. (5 oz. whirlpooled @ 170F for 20 mins, then 5. oz dryhopped @ room temp for 3 days before kegging).
The most prominent note I got was citrus (might have been the hop-yeast interaction), followed by the resin, spice, and subtle strawberry (but as another commenter mentioned, I used a lot of them).
The beer was excellent, however. It was a hit with everyone who tried it. My girlfriend thought it tasted like "Fox Farm" (great local brewery here in Salem CT.)
Where did your fridge go?
It sounds like they moved it to the other side of the room and put the mic in it
First up. I was tired of wrestling with the upright kegorator and it was getting loud. I’d have to unplug it during shoots and then id forget to plug it in. The plan is to put a two faucet tower in the newair kegorator. Second. I had a no recoverable audio glitch on the mic’ed audio source so I was forced to switch to the B-roll camera and isolate its audio for the whole shoot. Oh well. New tech is coming to completely isolate the audio sometime soon. Cheers! -Mike
I had a good experience last year with belma. I did a single hop belma ipl with 1lb for 10gal and it turned out great. It was nice orangey like marmalade and had a pleasant green vegital note not like grass but like wild hops. No strawberry though
i bought a lb of belma a few years ago, all I got was dirt, wound up tossing it. Maybe it was the lot... but I remember one of those descriptors as "strawberry", I just tasted mud
That's awful. We need to get to the bottom of these disconnects between descriptors and actual flavors at the homebrew level. Cheers! -Mike
Got me thinking about brewing again. Cheers nice video guys. 🍻
Cheers! -Mike
Good video guys. I know you touched on it, but I would like to see you indicate what specific styles of beer this would be compatible with. That would apply to any new hops you review. On another note, where did the fridge go?
Haven’t used it a ton. But I think it could be added to any pale beer style! Maybe a sweet stout too?
The fridge was getting old and I didn't like managing the tight fit for tubing and kegs. Out it went! Cheers! -Mike
I don't really like Northern Brewer either. I have a batch with NB for the bittering hop, and lemon drop and a little cashmere for character. It's oddly bad. I blend it into Belgians and it's good though.
It seems to me that hop growers just add a couple of fruits to the description even though they are nowhere to be found. I guess they think you have to have fruits to sell hops these days.
I was thinking the exact same thing!
I often wonder if it’s a difference between the pro marketplace vs the homebrew marketplace. I mean if a pro brewer was signing a hop contract for tens of thousands of hops that didn’t have the character advertised I would think you’d hear an uproar. So in my mind maybe top notch Belma ( insert your favorite hop) does have notes of fruit and strawberry. But the later harvested stuff or packaged stuff doesn’t and it comes to us. Just a theory. Cheers! -Mike
@@BrewDudes probably also why homegrown hops can be so much better. I know not everyone has success, but when you get hops to grow good at home they are way better than the ones you buy
According to Yakima Valley Hops:
"Belma® hops are a found hop variety from Puterbaugh Farms in Washington State. Belma offers moderate alpha acid levels that usually range from 8 - 12%. Its aromas are pleasant with a wide range of fruits including melon, tropical fruits, and a unique strawberry. Belma works well in a wide range of styles including pale ales!"
This is why I appreciate your videos. Hop farms seem to hype certain characteristics that are often not recognized.
Would you describe the spiciness as being phenolic? I'm thinking it might be interesting to pair these with a POF-strain in some kind of pale Belgian beer like a blonde biere de garde
No. It was really more generic herbal/spice like. Which organic chem wise is probably a phenol based compounds but I wouldn't describe the flavor with the traditional brewing usage of the term phenolic. That probably doesn't help you. It Nobel hop like in character so I am sure with restraint it would be great in a Belgian style. Cheers! -Mike
Metric system yayyyy! \o/
Hi John And Mike, I am curious if you take the minimum time to brew a batch of beer would it taste good. For example twenty min mash, 30 min boil. Cool and pitch. Would love to hear your thoughts. Regards James. Australia
We should do a full video on this but... If your water chemistry and mash pH is spot on you can most certainly bang out a full mash with modern malts in 20minutes. Especially if you don't waste time on doing mash out. Then the malt would still be converting starches in solution until the temperature got to high as the boil ramped up. The only issue I see with short boils is the boil off. Certainly 30min is plenty for bittering hops. Depends on style for bitterness I suppose. If you compensate for diluted wort by adding more grain to deal with the shorter boil I suppose you'd be good. But then your back at a mash process issue to be sure you get it all converted. In winter time I do BIAB in the garage so I have less hoses and need for water. I routinely knock that down to 40min mash, 40min boil. Works just as well. Cheers! -Mike
What happened the sound in this video?
Where the mics in someone's pocket?
Besides that, good review ... I did a SMASH recently with BRU-1 and reached the same conclusion from your video on that, so will give the Bellma a miss I reckon.
Ah!!! I had a technical glitch on the main source and had to switch to the secondary audio source which isn’t on our mics. Cheers! -Mike
The kegerator is dead. Long live the kegorater. Are you going to add more taps to that tower?
I am planning to put a two faucet on there soon. Cheers! -Mike
I just made a SMaSH with 2021 Belma from YVH. It was pretty underwhelming 😐
:)