Bells Hopslam

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

Pours with a crystal clear, amber-orange body topped by a thin to medium thick head with some lacing. It’s slightly sweet and citrusy from the hops with a light underlying malt note and a little pine. medium bodied, slightly dry and well carbonated.

This one has kind of a wierd aroma. The hops have a bit of a musk floating around. Other than that, it’s a nice complex spicey hop mixture that seems to avoid the typical IPA cliches. Malt balances the tingling hops. Tastes more like a really nice IPA. I never would have pegged this as almost 10%, but damn tasty.

Bottle courtesy of IMtheOptimator: Poured a slightly hazy yellow color ale with a huge foamy head with great retention and lacing. Aroma of citrusy hops is well balance with sweet caramel malt – the smell of this beer is really great and I can only compare with 3F dreadnaught in term of greatness. Taste is such a well balance mix between sweet caramel malt, bitter and citrusy hops and a great floral aspect to hold it all together. This is definitely something I will want and drink some more.

Bottle from Lonetree. Clear orange with a fizzy white head. Grapefruit caramel and toffee aroma and taste with some nice sticky citrus notes to the finish. Great brew.

Updated 2/19/07, fresh Batch 2277. This was everything I remembered and then some. When fresh, it seems less buttery, with the honey really playing a smoothing role over the intense hop profile. Great beer!

Original rating 9/6/07, over six months old. Pours a cloudy, orange-amber color with some sediment. Small, off-white head eventually settles to a thin film with a prominent rim. Excellent spider-web lacing coats the glass. The aroma is beautiful, showing intense citrus and piney, resinous hops over a buttery toffee background. It literally smells like a freshly squeezed Florida navel orange was infused with melted toffee and hops. The flavor just expands upon the world-class aroma. Citrus hops explode into the mouth like a tsunami, while ample caramel and toffee malts follow behind to quickly and carefully put the taste buds back into check. Long, pleasing, citrus hoppy finish. The body is on the heavy side of medium and is somewhat sticky, though I am more than willing to overlook this minor flaw. What an absolutely fantastic beer! One of the best IPA’s in the world, without question. I love Bells Brewery!

12oz bottle. i believe about 8-10 weeks old now. pours a nice orangey pale with big head. nose is very nice PNW hops, grapefruit, peach, mango. taste is very citrusy, mango, hops are pretty messy, but this beer is bitter at first but finishes sweet and in the end doesn’t leave a big bitter bite. a refreshing beer but the hops are too messy to make this a great beer.3.6.

2/17/08, bottle, 2008 vintage. Thanks to kan for picking 2 of these up for me. aroma has big herbal, vitamin like, and grassy hop notes with some alcohol behind it. flavor is pretty bitter with good dose of boozyness right there with all those hops. I’m still not blown away by this beer but I think this vintage is much better than it was last year.3.9.

Pour is hazy golden amber with a big bubbled off white head...smell is super strong citrus hops...lemons and grapefruit...taste is sweet lemons and citrus...some malt, but strong citrus and alcohol sweetness...nice...

Thanks to tever for this beer. It pours an opaque honey color. And, to the shock of no one, the flavor and aroma are.... Hoppy. but there is some balance to this beer, it’s not just a hop assault.