Bells Hopslam

Nice esp. for a 10% beer. No apparent alcohol. Very hoppy. Well made. Like the addition of honey. Not syrupy or cloying like Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA. Nice. Buy again.

bottle my wife brought back for me when she went on a business trip. thanks wife, she also brought back a few other bells brews and these are the first i have tried. poured into a snifter has lighter carbonation visible and a thin lacing layer of light tan froth and a light ruby amber color. the smell is absolutely heavenly. there is the sweetest grapefruit hops i have ever smelled mixed in with fresh real honey leaving aromas of grass and wildflower pollen from the fields the bees fly about. light caramel and citrus rinds make the aroma like hops colliding with a candy store. at this point i wish she could have fit cases of the stuff into her suitcase but this one bottle will have to do. the taste is incredibly smooth without any heavy biting from the hops or alcohol really being noticeable. the main attraction is clearly the hops. they are fruited nicely and offer a little pine but don’t become resinous. sweetness is at a perfect level and it moves to finish dry with bitter at the side of the tongue. this is just amazing stuff. perhaps because it is rare to get and my wife brought it back for me it tastes even a bit better than it really is.

I have to say firstly that I am not really a hophead- I mean I love hops, but just not usually in the quantity that feels like a 2X4 to the face. There are many over-hopped beers out there, and to me not many of them are very appealing. The Bell’s hopslam is able to keep the hop flavor fresh, not cooked and overly bitter. Lots of fresh aroma, good tongue covering flavor, no empty spots in the profile. The alcohol is well masked, just a bit of vapor in the nostrils. I got three bottles, will put the other two down for a while to see where it goes. If you like big beers, this one is a skillfully brewed example that you will really like, not exactly my type of beer, but I can appreciate the quality. Very well done.

Bottle - batch #8283. Light carmal color. Small white head. Nice lacing. Huge hoppy aroma. This is a giant beer. Very early, grassy flavors. Good earthy mouthfeel. Wow, this is a great brew. Only negative is the price. At over $12 for a 6 pack it is pricy. The high alcohol content isn’t all that noticeable, but probably another reason that this tremendous brew is more for show then it’s more mainstream cousin the Two Hearted Ale.

Bottle. Clear, golden amber pour with a slight head. Definite hop aroma, though not as intense as I was expecting. Also, a less prevalent sweet caramel aroma. Hoppiness much more prevalent in the flavor than in the aroma. The flavor starts with a sweet caramel maltiness and ends with a bitter, herbal hop aftertaste. Medium bodied, malty mouthfeel. Very smooth and drinkable. I would not guess that it is 10% abv. Very good stuff.

thanks to ilanman for providing this one. scent of peaches and lots of hops. taste is full of beautiful hops and lots of citrus and fruit. certainly a grapefruit sensation here. this is what you should expect from an IPA. anything else is less than par. an absolutely fantastic beer. i would recommend it to anyone. very happy that i saved this for my 100th rating. i will probably base many of my ipa ratings against this one.

Pours into a cloudy copper color with a soft white head. Smells like grapefruit before the pour and is greatly apparent when tasting. The bitterness is felt in the middle part of the tongue. Medium to heavily bodied. Very tasty, similar to Dogfish Head 90 minute.

A honey dipped Simcoe hop with a really nice buss. One of the best DIPA I have ever had, minus Pliny the Elder.