 CharlesDarwin (1333), State College, Pennsylvania, USA
May 9, 2008 Updated: May 11, 2008
12oz Bottle. Dank, dank, dank. Resins like nothing else. Pine trees, tropical fruit and candy. Amazing. WOW! Pours a viscous yellow and orange. Clear color. Unique color. Flavor is intense! There’s flowers, spice, and gums. A little heavy on the bittering hops. Grass and celery seeds peek in a little. But there’s good hop flavor there. A touch warm. That’s a lot of hops. Good condensed hop flavor, but maybe a touch too turpentine and grass to me. Finishes in some Moroccan spices. In the end the hops are just needlessly bitter. I want more of that juicy, fresh, up-front flavor and not so much harsher bitterness. Gratuitous. Also, the extra 1.07% of alcohol put it over the edge in terms of heat (as compared to HopSlam). Fun to try. Kickin! Thanks Sean!
cgarvieuk (2160), Edinburgh, Scotland
Jul 20, 2008 Bottle at home ...with the wife, Doppelganger and his wife ... Deem amber ... big american hop nose ... again big powerful flavour ... loads of tart american hops ... nice enough but didnt hit the spot with me.
Doppelganger (1086), Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Jul 17, 2008 Bottle, at cgarvieuk’s, with Stella, the kids, and Traci. Really great tasting Craig—thanks! Shiny copper, fine white head. Full melon-honey hop nose, musky mineral/animal grapefruit. Under that, a touch of toasty character. Find textured chewy malt, velvety alcohol mixed with hop juice. Almost more hop liqueur than beer. Alcohol very straight-on and unhidden, but kind of nice like that. Chalky sweet finish.
IMtheOptimator (1100), Bethel, Connecticut, USA
Jul 17, 2008 Poured an effervescent amber with a frothy white head. Nice, fairly intense aroma of grapefruit rind and pine needles with a touch of sugar candy and a bit of alcohol. Flavor follows faithfully with strong notes of bitter grapefruit and pine, some earthiness, lots of bitterness but also backed by a biscuity sweet body that Hopslam lacked. I can taste some alcohol but not nearly enough to make me suspect 11%. For me, this was superior to hopslam, with a slightly metallic alcohol taste in the finish being its only detractor. I would certainly purchase this regularly if if were available to me. I am ignorant as to whether Bells is brewing this special or intends to make this a permanent release, but I think this would be an excellent addition to their lineup... the pale brother of Expedition, maybe.
SQNfan (388), Wheaton, Illinois, USA
Jul 7, 2008 Tasted at the pre-DLD event at Flossmoor: Powerful, thick, rich, dense...you name it. There was tons of citrus along with herbal hops and some balancing caramel malt. The only downpoint was that this came off as big for the sake of being big. I love big beers but feel that if they had toned this down a 1/2 notch it would have been even better.
Glouglouburp (1876), Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Jul 6, 2008 In short: A dry, very dry intensely hopped triple-IPA.
How: Bottle 12oz, drank 3 months after its release. Bottle as a bonus (!!!) from moejuck. That’s an unreal bonus Joe, I owe you one!!!
The look: Clear golden-copper body topped by a medium white head
In long: Big nose of cedar, grapefruit, pine-tree and citrus. Toasted bread with honey and caramel followed by an intense, and I mean INTENSE hops bitterness. Pine-tree, cedar and dry citrus fruits skin are the hops flavours. Alcohol somewhat apparent. I had this one and the Hopslam side-by-side and this one really tasted like a much dryer version of the Hopslam with an added cedar touch. I can’t believe that Bells sent most of this release to San Diego!?! As if San Diego needed another excellent Double IPA. Christ!!! Why not send Upland lambics to Brussel while at it? Or your tax money to Bill Gates just to keep on with the spirit.
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