Bells Hopslam

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

Serve in Snifter, Tulip

Big thanks to gn0sis for this. Bottle looks great, as well as the beer in the glass. Very zippy, huge head. Starts very strong, intense malty, flowery-grasy, quite dry. Finish a bit milder, more sweet than dry, still wonderful intense fruity. Goes down warming. Intense aftertaste. A great beer!

UPDATED: SEP 7, 2011 Bottle in KC, courtesy of foppa78. A light hazy, golden-orange appearance. Grapefruity, earthy hoppy nose. Lemon citrus and lots of grapefruit in the flavor. Some pine flavor characteristics and especially some earthy overtones. Bitter hoppy, grapefruity finish.

Bottled October 2006, Sampled December 2006
Pours with a touch of yeast dustiness, but the beer is a lightly reddish hued, amber to copper color. It is topped by a frothy, almost two-finger thick, light tan colored head. The aroma is certainly quite hoppy; it is a mix of citrus, pine and even a more dank hop note similar to onions or perhaps even garlic. The hop aromatics are certainly an interesting mix. The predominant character is that of audaciously vibrant sweet citrus and exotic fruit aromas; notes of apricots, lychee, pineapple, candied orange peel, concentrated ruby-red-grapefruit, and other tropical fruit notes make up the dominant notes. Behind the upfront hop fruit though is a touch of more raw hop character; hints of pine, menthol and that onion-like almost garlic character lurk in the back ground, just enough to add a hint of complexity. Where is the malt? I couldn’t tell you underneath all of the hops.

The taste is sweet with the fruity hop notes, in fact the sweet fruitiness just sticks around clinging to the palate even after the beer has left my mouth. The hop fruit notes are much the same as I noticed in the aroma, but here there is a touch of biting bitterness to add a touch of balance. You know it is a hop focused beer, when you need hop bitterness to balance other hop derived notes. The malt is buried here, playing only a supporting role, there is certainly enough malt to not allow the hops to be dominating and raw, but definitely not enough more my hop flagellated taste buds to notice. It has just enough mouthfeel / palate coating ability to help the dominant hop character along; I wouldn’t say that this was a beer you wanted to pound, but it is dangerously quaffable.

The hop character here is so smooth & even soft (despite being amped up and loud overall); the brewer definitely took a heavy handed approach with smooth fruity hops like Simcoe and Amarillo when brewing this beer. The flavor does not have much, if anything, noticeable of the onion / garlic note that I experienced in the aroma, though perhaps there is a touch of it in the finish. Really the finish is dominated by a smooth, lingering bitterness that perhaps takes on a touch of mentholated pine. I really am a sucker for these smoothly fruity, over the top, one dimensional hop bombs. This is quite bitter, though I don’t necessarily realize it most of the time. This is totally only comprises one dimension of the usual three that a beer can have (hop, malt and yeast), but it is so enjoyable in its expression of the hop.

Bottle from Footbalm. Strong citrus and pine aroma, lemon, pomegranite, acid. Very well balanced, good complexity, no off aromas, but just kinda boring. Pour is a cloudy gold with a decent head. Similar taste of rich hops, though a bit soapy, a little "unripe" tasting, if it were fruit. Definitely showcases hops for everything they are, though. A bit boozy and hard to drink.

I picked up a couple of bottles of this, and I’ve just had the first. I think I’ll wait a long while to take out the second, and then it will probably only be to trade with someone. Yellow, hoppy...it’s not bad in that it has sufficient body to satisfy my palate, and the hops aren’t ridiculously out of balance in some astringent-monster kind of way, but it still lacks in dimensionality. The alcohol is really well hidden. It’s still just a boring hop party.

UPDATED: JAN 16, 2011 Bottle. Strong resin and grapefruit nose, light flowers and fruitiness, very inviting. Clear orange pour with a huge creamy / foamy / lacy head. Strongly bitter hop juice, resin and hops, delicious sticky hoppy aftertaste. Oily full palate. Distilled buds, I say! Extreme and perfectly to style, yet repeatable - I could have two of these every night. ... Also, double-take on seeing masterfully-hidden alcohol pct. - seriously, my eyes bugged, I couldn’t be convinced this had 9.5%

Having tried a year-old bottle last week and followed it up with the really fresh stuff [8283], I’m a re-dedicated fan - one of the drinkable doubles.

January 2011 bottle from Batch [10101] -- there’s nothing in the world like fresh Hopslam. Just pure, concentrated flavor.

Awesome aroma. Fruity pears, apricot, and grapefruit. Nice resin and fusel oil, pine cone and mild alcohol notes. Hoppy, fruity, and floral. Super nose to this one. Golden amber clear with a slight haze. This off-white wispy head. Medium heavy watery body with medium carbonation. Starts with a nice malt sweetness. Big initial notes of grapefruit and pear. Great hoppy flavor. Big bitter finish with sweet malt notes and almost cloying. Alcohol is noticeable. One of the fruitiest and juiciest IPAs I’ve had. Nice bittering in the after and nice hops presence all around.

12oz bottle, courtesy of Monger. Thanks, James! Pours an attractive, cloudy pink-grapefruit color; whitish head with decent retention and lacing. Fantastic, dank citrus aroma: tons of grapefruit, mango, and lemony hops with a touch of tartness; mouthwatering, to say the least. Excellent balance in the mouthfeel: plenty of citrus and piney hops, dank and juicy, hints of tangerine, backed by a solid malt backbone (suggesting maple syrup and sugar). Light piney bitterness and dryness at the end. One of the best IIPAs I’ve had.