Bells Hopslam

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

Serve in Snifter, Tulip

Bottle poured into Imperial pint. Citrus aroma very strong and solid. Taste of tangerine and hops. Mild alcohol taste. It’s the Two-Hearted Ale on steroids. Very bitter aftertaste that leaves me wanting another. Read an earlier post that said $27 per sixes, but I paid half that. WELL worth it!!!!!!

Bottle. Pours a beautiful copper color. Aroma is excellent. A substantial citrus smack. This is a big beer with a hearty grain bill and the honey. It comes in at 10 percent abv. This a beer to savor and enjoy. It’s also pretty darn pricey out of the home area. I paid 27 bucks for a six, so it had to be worth it, and it was. Great DIPA.

Excited for this one. Quite expensive. Clearish golden with a thinned head. POTENT hop aromas waft off the top and present the nostrils with an initial slam of woodsy bittering hops featuring a flowery citrus, but then they quickly peter out and develop more nuanced cherry brandied aromas and some toasted sugary notes, alcohol. I envision stumbling across this beer in a wintery meadow just on the verge of springtime. It is just waiting to burst forth with life and flavor. I was surprised the glass was not shaking with expectation. However, the flavors which seemed so promising in their development fell short in follow through. A robustness was there from the start but never materialized into the promise it gave, although it was remarkable. It was still a powerful offering, perhaps needed to sit for a while in the sun to open up, Slightly vineoues and sweeteningly strong with its sharpened caramel touch. Not much honey to taste but it must have been well bouyed by the citrus slam. Achingly enjoyed. A very good beer.

Source: 12 oz bottle from local retailer. Aroma: Has a rather lovely and potent smell of hops to it. Just based on the first smell I imagine this brew being quite bitter. If there are other smells in here, they aren’t particularly prominent to my nose…it’s mostly the hops. Appearance: A light golden color with a little bit of carbonation, accompanied by half a finger’s width of light white head. The beer itself is very clear. Taste: Quite a bit like it smelled like it would taste. The hop flavor is very intense. I was surprised that it was not quite as bitter as I expected it to be. I feel like I taste some lightly bitter citrus fruit on the aftertaste. Very enjoyable taste, overall. Palate: It has a light body to it, very crisp. Easy to drink quickly. The hops flavor has a bit of staying power. It’s the only thing you’ll be tasting in between sips. Overall: An exemplary brew. I did not used to be a fan of the style, in general. I now realize this was because I was drinking poor examples of the style. The price I paid for the 6-pack was well worth the cost.

Thanks to Sarah for this bottle. If you like hops, if you like IPA...this beer is for you. Otherwise, you probably won’t like it. The hop taste was a bit much for me.

Trevlig doft, fin balans, smaken en gnutta överhumlad men ingen spor av alkoholen. Fin och fyllig eftersmak – en god IPA men bara halvgod DIPA.

Packaged on 1/11/2011 enjoyed on 2/12/2011, thanks to mixylplik3 for sharing this with me. Pours a slightly cloudy deep golden amber color with a thinnish white head that dissipates too quickly. Smells of pine resin and citrus up front. Hints of sweet fruit, grass and honey lie deep underneath the resinous onslaught. Taste is sweeter than the aroma leads you to believe. There’s a solid malt backbone here with a sweet honey taste that drives this brew. Pine, citrus and tropical fruits add to a spicy/herbal taste in the fairy sweet finish. Medium body and carbonation level, sweet less than syrupy mouthfeel. I’ve sampled a couple of IPA’s tonight and this one is the sweetest. Very flavorful, very tasty, Matt should get me some more.

Shoutout to my main man Buddha22 for this, got it in a trade with him. Poured a cloudy, semitransparent golden amber, with plenty of foamy, pure white head that laced very well and retained not as well. Left a perfect swirl in the middle of the beer that was gorgeous...that was probably dumb luck, but it was still kind of cool. Aroma was what I was expecting and then some. Started with lots and lots of citrus and tropical fruit, before moving to caramel and brown sugar. Probably the stickiest aroma in a beer I’ve ever had the pleasure of smelling. Taste followed suit, with a tropical hop bomb to wake you up. Pineapple and mango dominate, before giving way to that sticky-sweet caramel/brown sugar malt. Honey also rears its head quite slyly right about here. The malt sweetens the fruit flavors and, combined, are dangerously close to becoming candy like - and then the hops save the day, offering up a soft, yet strong, bitterness that perfectly balances the beer. Clean and herbal, the hops finally give in to a slightly sticky finish that leaves you smacking your lips. A tiny bit of booze caps it all off. I like a clean and dry finish as much as the next guy, but this sweet finish is just so good. Drinkability is EXCEPTIONAL for the 10% abv, as you don’t even notice it until the end, when it is simply a welcome taste and feeling. This beer balances itself out, and although you may not be able to taste anything else for while, this on its own goes down as easy as just about any beer out there, regardless of style. Beast of a beer.