Bells Hopslam

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

Everybody’s talking about grapefruit, but I get mango, mango, mango on this one, which is what really makes it stand out for me. Grapefruit and pine and all that, too. Definitely more sweet than bitter to me. Way too easy to drink for the 10% it’s packing. Great beer.

Aroma of grapefruit, orange blossoms, pine, spruce, and the hint of berries. The flavor is tart, grapefruit, oranges, some faint hints of berries, and some piney, sprucey flavors. Very clean finish, creamy, smooth, hoppy bitter mouthfeel. A very very good IIPA.

Much thanks to theisti for this one. Batch 7741. Beautifully hazy orange pour with nice IPA head. Piney and citrusy nose than tells me I’m going to love this beer. Big malt and hop profile that is just incredibly balanced....pine, resin, citrus, apricots....all the great flavors. Full bodied mouth feel that finishes smooth and pleasingly bitter. I would drink this beer everyday if I could get it. Thanks theisti!

Bottle. Pours a golden/amber color, with a medium white head, and nice lacing. The aroma is very hoppy, as the name would imply, with grapefruit, pine, juniper, and some sweet caramel. The flavor is very hoppy, so much so, that you can’t really taste the malt at all. There is a little burn in the hops at the end, that says "you’re going to need tums tonight!" I do get a faint but of caramel in between the pine, citrus, and grapefruit. Maybe after some aging, the flavor will settle some and I can re-rate it.

Bottle courtesy of the great miketd who tossed this baby in as a bonus -- thank you!

Pours a golden orange, glowing and beautiful, a nice near-white head that lasts pretty long for the ABV and retains powerful lacing along the sides of my tulip glass. The aroma of this beer is ridiculously nice. Hops all the way; fruity with lots of pear and pineapple, but also herbal the way I love it so, man I’m just out there in the experimental garden at the UM botanical gardens some summer in Ann Arbor, drinking deep those herb aromas. Heck, one sniff of this beer and suddenly I remember the whole route out there, out Geddes past Route 23 and left on Dixboro, past the housing developments that were already starting to mar the Michigan countryside.... Beautiful flavor. Perfect balance, no sticky over-roasted grain, just powerful fruity hop goodness, no palate ruinition, just tropical-fruit hops, steeped in honeydew, with slight hints of resin and a smooth mouthfeel that would leave you thinking 7% if it weren’t for out utter burst of flavor that could not be explained below the 10% that this actually musters.

Spendid beer; a worthy big brother to my all-time favorite Two Hearted. 9/4/8/4/17=4.2

Second visit, April ’09. Nowhere near as impressed this time. It’s alright, but basically a big sticky IIPA. I’d much rather have a two-hearted. I’d go about 8/4/7/4/14=3.7 this time. I’ll average the ratings.

12oz bottle. Intense lemony hop aroma (amarillo?), very well done. This one is really unique, it really manages to do something special with the strong hoppy beer. Straightforward filtered orange-tan color, very deceptive. Intense citrus flavors, and the honey helps to smooth out any semblance of syrup domination. A true classic. Worth the hype.

Wow, what an aroma to begin with. This beer pours a golden amber color with a huge pine and citrus presence. I loved the pine sap in the smell, then the flavor was very sweet in the hops and biig in sweetness with a balanced finish, which is what separates the men from the boys in the Double IPA Category. Very grapefruity, more so than even 90 Minute, it is almost 120 minute hoppy. This is an outstanding beer.

(Bottle) Pours a copper color with a nice white head. Hoppy aroma, with citrus notes dominating. Decent IPA, but not as bitter as I expected. There were some off flavors in this beer, a metallic and grassy mix that lasted well into the finish. Not sure if it was an old bottle or what. I will try it again, and re-rate it accordingly when I get the chance.