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Belma Hops

Hop profile on the new hop variety Belma. This trademarked hop variety was introduced in late 2012 by Hops Direct, LLC and Puterbaugh Farms.   They are named after a small community that once existed in Washington State.

Unfortunately, it appears to be sold out until this year’s harvest but it has stirred up some interest from commercial and homebrewers alike.

From the Hops Direct site, they stated that Dr. Tom Shellhammer from Oregon State University brewed up a pale ale with them. Actually, the page stated he create a Pale Ale Malt, but I am thinking it was a typo. In any case, he had some good descriptors of the aroma and flavors.

Around the web, other people brewed with them and posted their findings. From what I read, the consensus is that Belma is a distinctive, pleasant hop variety but doesn’t pack the punch of some other American hop varieties. It’s milder in terms of its intensity.

Bear Flavored Ales had a good write up of their Belma single hop IPA.

Here’s the rundown for this new variety:

Origin: USA. Yakima Valley of Washington State

Aroma/Flavor: Orange, melon, strawberry, with some grapefruit and tropical fruit notes

Alpha Acid: 9.8% – 12.1%

Typical Usage: Dual Purpose

Beer Styles: It seemed like many homebrewers who tested them out brewed IPAs with them and were happy with the results but the variety seemed too mild for the style.

This reaction reminded me of brewing with Glacier hops.

With the fruitiness that Belma brings, there were suggestions of brewing a saison with them.  With the aroma/flavor profile,  I think these hops would be great in style where you want to showcase hop fruitiness.  Maybe an American wheat beer where you split a batch and add fruit to one and left the other half for dry hopping with Belma.   Maybe I just made a brew plan for the next time these hops are available.

Thanks to Señor Brew for the hop profile suggestion.

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4 Comments

  1. Looks like you can still get them in pellet form from Hops Direct.

  2. kevin

    the pellets are lower alpha at 9.8%. I was curious how the same variety can be lower alpha in pellet form vs leaf? I have used the leaf form in an ipa as flavor/aroma additions along with bullion for bittering and galaxy for dry and loved the results. I saw you guys did a write up on Calypso and was wondering if you have seen anyone actually selling them from the 2012 harvest? I have not? Not that I would of bought any, but I am curious about all of these new strains showing up (like Belma this year) and while i love to try new varieties i also would be dissapointed somewhat to fall in love with a certain recipe and then have them turn out to be a one year wonder like calypso seemed to be? does anyone have any insight into this? thanks

  3. Yes, I noticed the difference on the alpha acid percentage too. I need to update the post.

    Austin Homebrew Supply appears to have some pellets for sale. I was abvle to add them to my cart – not sure if they hit you with an out of stock message later.http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=1288

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