Bells Hopslam

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

Bottle from the Beer Yard. Pours turbid dark straw with floaties. Aroma is huge tropical fruit, resiny hops, mango, black pepper, tangerine, honeydew, peach, guava. The flavor is tropical fruity, very hoppy, balanced well by caramel malt, with the mango, tangerine, honeydew, even watermelon hints, plus pineapple and papaya. Very complex aroma and flavor. Toward the finish, it gets a bit dry and a tad astringent. Take 2 parts Stone 10th, add 1part Weyerbacher 11, a dash of Dreadnaught, and a syringe full of Hop Whompus, and you have this beer. Just marvelous!

Bottle (batch 8907, Jan 6 bottling). Head is initially small, frothy, off-white, mostly diminishing. Body is medium amber, bottle conditioned. Aroma is lightly to moderately malty (toasted grain, caramel), moderately hoppy (resin, apricot, grapefruit, flowers), with light notes of sugar, tangerine, cantaloupe, and alcohol. Flavor is moderately to heavily sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, lightly to moderately bitter. Finish is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, moderately to heavily bitter. Medium to full body, watery/velvety texture, lively carbonation, moderately alcoholic. Nice for what it is...some attractive estery qualities underneath the hops, but they’re kind of faint...the raw resinous hop smell is the most dominant aspect here. A bit abrasive in the mouth, although admittedly this is not trying to be elegant or classy. Overall very good, but there are more complex and enjoyable examples.

12 oz bottle from Bello Vino in Ann Arbor, MI (late December 2006 -- last 6-pack!) consumed from a Corsendonk Christmas Ale glass a bit below cellar temperature. Hazy, soft orange-amber in color with a small-bubbled lasting off-white head that forms a trace of lacing.....apricots are the first fruit to hit the nose, followed shortly by sweet grapefruit, caramel and a touch of cinnamon, orangepeel and honey rounding out the medley of dessert treats after several sniffs, certainly well-done if fairly predictable.....I get virtually no alcohol apparent on the tongue, very dangerous as this is juicy and redolent of lightly fermenting fruits, perhaps infused with light maple syrup and honey, hop bitterness surprisingly restrained (well, not so considering the brewery perhaps but I would have expected more for it to be called an IIPA) although a fairly strong impact is made at the end when intense citric tartness and powerful hop oils finally do threaten to overwhelm the palate, but never do as it remains juicy and fresh and quaffable to the very end. Somewhat hard, prickly carbonation works well against the overall soft fruitiness of the beer. While I don’t find this amazing it is certainly one of the easiest to drink and most likeable of 9% beers I’ve had, and that’s saying something.

From a bottle. I bought this one at John’s Grocery in Iowa City. It is great to see the big Bells beers in Iowa. A slightly yellowish and long lasting head tops a dark gold and orange body. The aroma is fresh hops with pineapple and mango. Lots of tropical fruit. There is also some nice amaretto behind that initial hop pungence. The initial taste is massive pineapple and grapefruit, but not quite that sweet. In the back of the mouth, you get notes of brown sugar and almonds. The mouthfeel is thick and chewy, yet this is easy to drink. A very well made and relatively balanced IIPA.

Bottle from Archer Liquor. Batch 8907. Copper amber color with a frothy off-white head. Genuine cat piss aroma. Well, could be grapefruit. Medium body with creamy carbonation and hop burn. The oil is strong. Theres a lot of floral/citrus over some caramel. Honey? This is really super stuff. Finishes floral, mildly bitter and incredibly incredible.

Okay after already drinking two sixers of this beer I will finally rate it, snakeboy from Drakes be damned...Served in my GI IPA tulip: The pours is a clean golden hue with a fading frothy head and okay lace. The aroma is pure bless with lots of tropic and citric fruit esters, some pine and pepper, light bready malts, and a note of alcohol snap.

The flavor profile backs up the nose with a MOSTLY BALANCED fruity and bitter taste and some soft grainy malts. The finish is astrengent and metallic but works within the framework of the beer. Truly a straight forward yet not remotely boring big hoppy beer. The mouth feel matches the flavor components exactly, everything is where it should be.

Get ya some right now. It is all you should ever want in a IIPA. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, I DIG IT, IT ROCKS!!! Top 50 worthy IMO.

Bottle at home ... Thanks Tom ... Copper colour ... loose foam head ... very resiny piney hops ... intence though not as intence as expected ... quite smooth ... lime and lime peel... juicy ... very slowly building grapefruit bitter linger... Taste along side the Dogfish head 120 and its flavour come across a bit pealy wally ...

Poured a hazy golden color with a medium sized white head. Nice huge hop foward aroma of citrus, pine and some oranges. Malt finds it way through. Great mix of citrus and piney hops with sweet malt. Malt backs it up enough to let the hops be strong but not unbalanced. Moderately bitter semi-dry finish. The alcohol hides well with just some warmth within. Very drinkable and dangerous.