Batch 248, Belma pale ale

 I ordered a pound of Mosaic from hopsdirect.com, and they threw in a pound of Belma hops with my order. I had to look them up, they are specific to the Puterbaugh farm, found growing wild near their hops processing facility. Supposedly it's a cross between Magnum and Kitamidori. I use Magnum a lot, it's a nice, neutral bittering hop. I don't know Kitamidori, so I looked it up, it's a Japanese hop that is no longer cultivated commercially, and has a flavor profile similar to Saaz, but apparently has some strawberry/fruit flavors. So I thought I'd do a brew using mostly Belma to see how these taste. It's not a single hop brew since I'm using Magnum as the bittering hop.

10 gallon batch

19 lb pilsner malt

2 lb biscuit malt

1 lb white wheat

Mashed in with 8 gallons at 170F, hit 152F in the mash tun. Adjusted pH to 5.22. Recirc 15 minutes each batch. Second sparge also at 170F. Collected 12.5 gallons in boil kettle

1 oz Belma pellets, FWH

1 oz Magnum whole cone, 60 min

2 tsp Irish Moss, 15 min

3 oz Belma pellets, 5 min

90 minute boil. I put the Belma in nylon stockings so they don't clog my system. I noticed that the wort was quite cloudy going into the fermenter, likely due to the fine hops particles from the Belma.

Wyeast 1272, 1 quart fairly thick slurry from batch 247, so it's very fresh.

OG: 1.052, 1.060 actual

FG: 1.013

ABV: 5.1%

IBU: 60

SRM: 5.5

Easy brew day, the hop schedule meant I had a lot of free time, so I worked on my car. The driver side door wouldn't open from the inside all of a sudden, so I had to roll down the window and use the outside handle to get out. It turns out a plastic part where the inside handle connects to the release cable has broken. Bought a new one from ebay for $57, should be here Monday. I'm using a piece of parachute cord in the mean time to be able to open from the inside. Good times! Oh, and was comfortably numb most of the day :)