Bells Hopslam

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

I got the last bottle from The Cellars LexLarp in St Paul. Though they tell me it is the last one, they seem to find another case somewhere. Pours a golden orange amber with a thin head. Aroma - very very flowery sweet hops. Hops and more hops, I can barely keep my feet on the ground. Taste as an extra charged IPA on steroids with hints of grapefruit, peach and apricots. Wow! Great body with a nice touch of dryness in the finish.

Bottled, Batch 7690. Poured a chunky medium orange with a couple minutes’ worth of white head. The aroma is where this one really shines!... huge juicy fruit and floral hop candy just lures you in... grapefruit bitters and meat, sweet caramel, and pears all come into play.
The flavor was ever-so-slightly skewed toward malty sweetness... caramel and grapefruit at the core were just decadent... heavy pine, grapefruit, and juicy pears provide an ideal higher level of bitterness... alcohol is present only to accent the bitterness, provide warmth, and give you that tingly feeling on the backside of your gums... long, drawn-out sweet caramel and bitter grapefruit finish. "Succulent" is an ideal descriptor for this one.

Bottle (12oz). Shared with biegaman, blankboy and mds - biegaman’s bottle. Hazy orange, average frothy off-white head. HUGE hit of pungent, fruity, resiny hops (grapefruit, mango and pineapple), it even smells acidic - very sweet too; wow. Taste - more bitter,less fresh hops - quite good, but a bit of a step-down from the aroma - long bitter citrus-zest finish, enough malt to still seem quite sweet. Average body, acidic, astringent and bitter mouthfeel, long linger - solid, if ultimately one-dimensional I2PA. Thanks, Jan!

lots of initial head on pour on orangey brown. I grabbed this as an IPA, and then I find out quickly its a double hophead and higher alcohol than I expected. Its a bitter, sucking the leaf sucking the lime hop delivery that works and is satisfying aftertaste, not in your face or substantial malting as in other DIPA. My tongue was frozen later on. Good carbonation. Good but overated.

Bottle 355ml
Appearance: Clear , bright gold-amber ale. Rocky, fragmented head on top.
Nose :Fresh west hop aroma, citrus with malt base , fresh clean in its character. Good straightforward hop aroma. 7+
Flavor/Palate : Full bodied , one dimensional hop feel. Leaf-e wet in character. Golden clean malts are present but the they are slammed by hops.

2008-02-16. On tap @ Cole’s in Buffalo. Orange body with a smallish off-white or beige head (3+). Big fruity aroma, modest citrus and lots of tropical fruit, pineapple, underlying hop resin. (8+) Tons of hops in the flavour - orangey citrus, more tropical fruit and pineapple as in the aroma. Flavour has a decent amount bitterness throughout, but is not abrasive and is well integrated by hop bomb standards. Alcohol is present but not obtrusive. Smooth medium palate. (3+) Very good. 8+/3+/9/3+/17-18

Batch 8278. This Imperial IPA pours a medium copper amber color from a 12oz bottle. Medium sized white foamy head, nice lacing with good retention. The aroma is floral hops with some honey and some orange blossom. A medium bodied Imperial IPA. The malts are fruity and sweet. The hops are floral and grapefruity. Lots of orange blossom flavors. They balance the hop bitterness very nicely. Guess I am too used to west coast double IPAs, but I want a little more hop profile. The mixture works well here, and this is a tasty beer, but if I had to taste it blind I would never guess it’s a Imperial IPA. A lot of that is due to the fact it hides the 10% alcohol very well. Very drinkable, and if the alcohol was a little lower would be a nice session ale. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is crisp and clean. Aftertaste is slightly bitter.

This bottled brew from a bottle shop poured a head of foamy fine to medium sized off-white colored bubbles that were mostly lasting and left behind a hazy typically carbonated body and a good lacing. The mild aroma was of the malt hop variety. The very hoppy mouth feel was weakly tingly at the start and strongly tingly at the finish with a mellow aftertaste. The good flavor contained notes of nothing but hops. Delicious and one I would certainly buy again.