Bells Hopslam

Original review date 3/1/2008...12 oz. bottle poured into Hess truck glass at parents’ house... Single-finger head with average lacing. Perfect honey-orange body. Flowery hop bitterness with sweet honey aroma and perfumy alcohol burn on back of nostrils. Taste brings a little grapefruit but primarily a nice blend of flowers, alcohol, honey and apple. This is nice stuff. Slightly syrupy but clean on the mouth - tough to gauge if served a little cold. This is easily drinkable for 1-2 - gets a little heavy on the back end. Overall, extremely well-made.

Batch 8907 so the bottle is a few months old. Pours a deep orange with a nice head that has thick oily bubbles resting atop. They hang around a while. Nose is predominantly of honey, grapefruit oils, and toasted caramel malt. Pretty complex for a hop bomb. The hops are still nice in the taste despite running jokes about this beer fading the instant it is bottled. I think the balance between the malt and hops are nice, but the odd toasted palette linger I get perplex me every time I drink this. I really like this beer, but how it lingers on the palette is a flaw to me. Overall a very good DIPA. No alcohol in this one is detectable at all.

bottle thanks to thirdeye11. batch 8907 light yellow with a thick cream head. nose is florally grapefruit and fresh hops. very nice on the palate with a sweet grapefruity flavor that doesn’t even show a hint of alcohol.

600th rating. Bottle. Pours a hazy copper orange with a small frothy white head that leaves behind good sticky lacing along the glass. The aroma is floral hops with light fruit and grass. Medium mouthfeel with a piney hop taste and not as bitter as i was expecting. Hides the alcohol very well making it very easy to drink. So smooth, one of the best IIPA i have ever tried.

Twelve oz bottle form Chuck’s in Bowling green - kept in their back refrigerator since January. Thick & rich malts meld real nicely with the sweet and flowery intense hops. Aroma is mild, but the beer leaves your tongue tickled. Even makes your sinuses clear. Had this on tap in Chicago back in February, and it was quite different: much more bitter then, and also more carbonated. After a quick 10% ABV bottle, you definitely feel like the person on the label, bowled over by hops. A wonderful Imperial IPA that just keeps getting better with age.

It poured a clear golden liquid with a medium sized foam that left a nice lacing. The aroma was very strong with lots of hops, both fruity and grassy hops. Which made it smell great and almost made me drool. The first sip delivered what the smell had promised, it was filled with hops, both fruity and grassy and a high bitterness. A very nice beer and one of the best DIPAs I’ve had.

Bottle (2009); hazy orange w/ a pretty dense yellowish-white head that left plenty of lacing; aroma dominated by in-your-face grapefruit, grass, pine and citrussy hops notes; flavor is caramelly as well and not as bitter as one would expect given the aroma; very tasty indeed. I prefer the Hopsoulution because of its balance, but this is more of a true DIPA.

Slightly hazy glowing orange golden in appearance. Big hop nose, some bready malt, fruity some peaches. Slight syrupy body, medium fullness. Bitter bitter bitter! The name says it all. Slightly acidic, could be smoother. Overall pretty good for the style but I’ve had better.