Bells Big Head San Diego Style Ale

Formerly brewed at Bells Brewery
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

12oz bottle batch K8369. Intensely hoppy and resiny aroma. Slightly musty with hints of tree bark, perfume, alcohol. Citrus rind. High grade cannibis. Acetone and fusel alcohol as the beer opens. Pours a fairly thick looking dark orange with a thin film of an off white head. Starts with a very intense blast of ultra bitter hops. Green, grassy and earthy hops. Spicy. A very noticeable alcohol presence as well. Leaning toward full bodied with a huge hot, hoppy finish that lasts forever. Thanks Eben!

Holy shit there are litteraly an assload of hops the nose. It is even bitter in the aroma, tons of fresh picked plant and juicy hops. There is only a tiny hint of malt, it is there but just barely. The bitterness is almost immediate and very powerful. Way more plant than grapefruit it is kind of an assult on the palate, I can taste the potential but it is a bit over the top.

12oz bottle via amorphiss. Pours a golden orange with a small but steady white head. Aroma is a pretty large blast of fresh hops. Before further inspection I think it smells remarkably similar to Hopslam. Syrupy, fruity hops. After more smelling I can sense the difference. I think I like the aroma on this better than Hopslam. Simcoe, I think? A lot of them. The taste is BITTER. Man, that is bitter. Intensely hoppy flavor, certainly doesn’t have the smooth drinkability of Hopslam or Two Hearted, not that that is a flaw. Leafy hops, ripe peach. This must be what sucking on hop leaves would taste like. Honestly I think the bitterness is a little much, they could have eased up a little bit. This is a nice companion piece to Hopslam. I’m not a huge fan of either but I think this is an interesting experiment on the extreme use of hops.

Bottle from Hoppymeal. Pours a thick orange color with small head. Explosive aroma of tropical fruit,resin, and pine. The taste was BIG and sticky with candy hop flavors. Lip puckering finish that leaves a strong hop bitterness in your mouth. This was a very good beer. I literally almost choked on the 1st sip because of the hops. This beer produced hop burps for the rest of the night. Thanks goes to Derek for the bottle.

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!

Pours a clear, deep orangish amber with a one finger off white head that dissipates quickly leaving a few bubbles lingering around the top. Lacing is moderate. The smell is huge fruity hops, mainly grapefruit and peaches but there is also a healthy dose of big resiny hop aromas. There is also a decent sweet malt base in the background, but it’s all about the hops...speaking of hops, taste has a big fruity hop blast up front with grapefruits taking center stage. There is mild malt sweetness in the middle that quickly gives way to a massive resin hop blast that lingers all the way through the finish...like chewing on hops.

12oz bottle given to me by either derek or jeremy on DLD08. thanks guys.....started off on the right foot with a nice golden semi-transparent brown with a thin soapy white head..... what followed in the nose was an assertive aroma of floral and fruity hops (lychee/grapefruit) and an underlying sweet sugar component..... it all ended there for me as the flavor was hugely astringent with bitter pucker me up pine resin with lighter fruit notes that don’t do much in trying to balance the high bitterness level. in the end, the bitterness just took too much out of it for me to enjoy. glad i was able to try it though.

Bright orange pour with thick white head. Vibrant aroma consisting of pineapple, and lots of it! Carmel malts up-front bitter-sweet hop finish.