Bells Hopslam

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip

Bottle shared with friends. Golden orange pour with medium white head. Aroma of cirtrus With pine and floral notes. Flavour Is tropicalfruits, honey and citrus masking the high alcohol. Fantastic beer

35cl. Shared with kermis. Aged 1 year. Very thin white head. Alcohol is well hidden. Very hoppy, but the honey makes it well balanced. Yummy!

It has a clean copper color with a 1-2 finger thick off white head that leaves some decent lacing. This beer smells amazing! A wave of cirtus hops hits the nostrils while some floral and piney hops come in next, there’s a distinct grapefruit, orange and tropical fruit scent with sweet malts and a hint of honey. The taste follows the nose, the citrus and floral hops with the bready malts, the tropical fruit and the hint of honey. The palate is sticky and satisfying yet smooth and refreshing the 10% ABV is hidden very well. Overall: Next to Pliny the Elder this is the best IPA I’ve ever had and considering this is much easier to get for me it’s just plain amazing.

Appearance - This beer was a medium tan and fairly opaque. Not much head on the pour. At most you would get a finger of head with an aggressive pour. Not very viscous and no stickage to the sides of the glass as you swirled it. Smell - Heavy citrus notes. Grapefruit was most prevalent with orange and floral notes coming in a distant second. Quite a sweet smelling beer as well. Taste - Wow. I thought Quadrupels were my favorite beer. The bottle describes the taste as "bitter and biting"; thank God that wasn’t true. This could not have been more smooth and pleasant. Heavy grapefruit and orange notes with some retro-nasal breathing. Overall one of the best tastes I have had. Went down dry and leaving you ready for the next sip. Mouthfeel - Not heavy at all. Medium-bodied with some substance. Not much carbonation to speak of. This is so smooth you could chug it (but I wouldn’t because it needs to be savored). Overall - Very, very good beer. Love the citrus notes in the beer. A lot of care went into brewing this. Probably the top 2 of all of the beers I have had.

Astounding beer, hoppy, balanced, very strong alcohol that is hidden by all the other flavors. IMO one of the best beers made.

This is my favorite beer, with The Oracle as my 1A. Luckily I was able to snag two whole cases of the stuff this year, but I must do a better job of sharing next year because I still have a few bottles left. How is that possible? I will say that at about 5 months old the hop flavors and aromas are noticeably diminished, but at 4 months old it was still in very good shape. A beautiful golden-orange-ruby pour with a decent head and lacing and a wallop of grapefruit on the aroma. I actually garnished this with a grapefruit wedge (blasphemy!) to get my non-hophead sister to try it and guess what? Now it’s all she asks about! Despite the considerable bitterness, this is a well balanced brew thanks to all that honey. I always find myself stopping mid-sip to admire this fantastic DIPA. Well done.

This is a review from January when the brew was released. Quite possibly my favorite beer ... the balance of this 10% beast was remarkable. Not overly bitter, not overly sweet. The nose was intoxicating, pulling you into the beer, making you want to slam the DIPA goodness into your mouth. Every winter I’ll have this beauty to look forward to.

I had this a couple of weeks back but forgot to rate it. Pours an orange amber color with a nice white head. Aromas are heaven, the floral and citrus notes from the Simcoe hops really come through. The taste is mostly one sided, lots of hop grapefruit bitterness but there are a substantial amount of malts present as well. Really an excellent double ipa.