Bells Hopslam

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

Date: January 12, 2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Trade
Appearance: hazy golden, wispy white head
Aroma: slightly sweet citrus aroma
Body: creamy body
Flavor: good hop flavor with nice sweetness, mellow bitter finish, touch of pine sap

Date: March 09, 2007
Mode: bottle
Score: 3.3 to 3.5
picking up more pine sweetness in the aroma but it quickly fades or saturates, adding a bit of sedement adds a nice bready yeast character the balances the sweetness and improves the overall complexity, I still don’t love this beer like a lot of people but it is starting to grow on me

Date: June 07, 2007
Mode: bottle
Source: Ale Atlanta
Score: 3.5 to 3.9
picking up a ton of fruity orange and tangerine, still nice balancing hops but the fruity malt has taken over making this a great beer, a year of age is the key on this one

Date: February 09, 2008
Mode: bottle
Vintage: 2008
Score: 3.9 to 4.0
Aroma: sweet crystal malt aroma with nice fruity hops
Flavor: strong orange and tangerine flavor from the first bottle of the batch, bitterness is just enough to add balance but stay out of the way
Overall: now this is the vintage worth raving about

Date: April 25, 2008
Mode: bottle
Source: brusisin ales
Vintage: 2008
the honey sweetness in the aroma balances and complements the citrus hops,

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 17/20
Rating: 4/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: ***+/4

Original rate: Big hazy amber. Aroma is minty, highly orangey with some ganja. Bitter body, with lots of great herbal hop notes. Well-balanced. 8-4-8-4-17 = 4.1

Subsequent rate: Hazy golden-amber and what looks like low carbonation. Aroma is minty, slightly herbal, with hints of wood and caramel. Soft body with a slight bit of stickiness. Bitterness is moderate but tempered by a honeyish sweetness. Chewy crystal malts, a hint of herbalness and mandarin. Decent, but there’s a lot of these in the PNW. 7-4-8-4-14 = 3.7

Bottle at Akkurat, Stockholm
Golden color; big solid head, leaving a nice lace behind. The aroma is original, like fresh cream, then the hops of course, extremely fruity, grapefruit overall. It has a strong toffee flavor, with just some required sweetness; the most interesting side here is an original cookie flavor; as in the aroma, the hop shows a very good grapefruit presence. Strong final, well balanced, still with some residual sweetness to complement the fruity hops; there is also a light cheese character.
This beer has many interesting sides, more original than the average Double IPA. Excellent.

[To Celebrate my 1500th rating - thanks for providing me with this Papsoe!] Hazy orange with huge off white long lasting head. Sweet fruity aroma with notes of melon, grapefruit and hops. Sweet flavor with loads of hops and notes of melon, grapefruit and carame. Soft mouthfeel and a very bitter end. Lovely!

(3/7/07, bottle) Hazy amber body topped by off-white head. Aroma is moderately sweet, grapefruit, some pineapple. Taste is moderately sweet, some pineapple -- "bright" hoppiness that was missing from the previous time I tried it. Sticky medium-full body, alcohol hardly noticeable. (8/3/9/4/17)

(1/28/07, 12oz bottle, Batch 7806) Small beige head atop clear amber body, nice lacing. Very aromatic -- aroma is moderately sweet, pineapple, grapefruit -- syrup and fresh fruit at the same time. Taste is moderately sweet, grapefruit, some orange, pineapple/pine, caramel. Lots of bitterness here. Resiny medium-full body -- alcohol well-masked. Sadly, the wonderful aroma translates into something of a muddle in the flavor -- not bad, but I expected more after the inviting smell. (9/4/6/4/13)

From the Bottle at the Marriott Hotel, Denver 25/09/2009 Big hop aroma. Golden coloured hoppy and smooth on the palate with a crisp and slightly dry malt finish.

Bottled (CK); batch 8911. Clear amber color, small steady off-white head, some lace. Impressive aroma of passion fruit, pine and other kind of hoppy things. Medium-bodied. Very fruity, pale chewy malty, citrus, pineapple, passion fruit. Quite mellow IIPA, not as alcoholic as 10% would indicate. Aftertaste is cyrapy, hoppy, grapefruity and piney.

Thank you linus_stick/Alan for this very nice beer. It’s dark golden with a huge, nice and creamy head. The aroma has notes of resin, grass, pine, caramel, mango and some mild cheese. The mouthfeel is oily and the flavour is delicious and full with a light sweetness and a nice bitterness, that gros during the very long finish. The notes are orange/tangerine, mango, grass, resin, a hint of apple and caramel. It’s very delicious and harmonic! 2560