Bells Hopslam

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

Very nice! And a good example of how a beer can be big on hops and still leave room for malt to do its thing. The aroma was generally dominated by citric hops: orange rind, lemon rind, and grapefruit juice, and then a touch of doughy biscuity malt in the background. The flavor equally hoppy, it was a spicy resiny sort of hoppiness, with a mangoish level of fruitiness. Again, malt was there like biscuits or sugar cookies, providing plenty of rounded oomph to fill out the palate. Golden colored with a nice full creamy head.

Draft @ redlight. Woot woot!! That’s some stinky dank hop aroma!! Oh it makes me feel so good. Piney resiny grapefruit and dank cannabis. This is some deep hop aroma. Faded copper color, poured with minimal head. I don’t even want to drink it, jsut sniff it. But of course I’m going to drink it and I don’t even know where to begin. I get a big grapefruit citrus plus white grapes and cantaloupe or honeydew. Lingering resinous hops are sweaty and citric with a lemon-lime rind, the longer lingering fruit is honeydew rind. Malts? Oh shit I almost forgot about malts! ummm, bready with a syrupy caramel sauce but they’re not heavy. Not so much a backbone to the hops but a torso. Not a headless limbless torso but simple nonetheless. What the hell am I talking about?! I think metaphors have gone out the window of a speeding pickup truck. Make that a big truck with rust around the wheel wells. Back to the beer, the hops get puckering in the citrusickness. This beer just made me make up a word. This beer might also cause dissociative disorder. I’m not even halway through my pint. I think I’m fucked. Woooooooooy. From a distance (what distance?) I think there’s some kind of candy-caramel nearby. I’ve lost my ability to manipulate a writing instrument. That means pen. There’s a girl at the bar that looks like a young Linda Rondstadt circa 1968, and she’s just ordered a pint of this stuff. A beer geek couldn’t hardly ask for a better infatuation. (numbers are up from 4.1 for the bottle to 4.5 for the draft)

Many thanks to Acknud for sending along this tasty treat. Pours from the botttle a slightly hazy, but bright orange/copper color under a creamy 1/2" beige head. Retention is strong throughout the glass with just a few streaks of lacing noted. The intial aromas were big-time essence of Juicy Fruit gum and freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice. This was nicely supported with smells of sun-drenched fresh pine needles, lemon zest, tangerine and some faint sweet honey/floral notes. The 10% alcohol shows up faintly in the aroma serving to amplify the above. The aromas were basically all about the hops, but who’s complaining? Fantastic! Palate was very smooth, silky, creamy with a nicely subtle carbonation. Flavor was extremely well balanced here between the hops, malts and honey. Yeah, it was definitely dominated by the hops; lots of citrus rind, honey drenched grapefruit and pine. But the late palate delivers a subtle, but balancing presence of orange blossom honey and light crystal malt sweetness. Finishes with a firm hop resin bitterness and a warming alcohol presence. A very easy-drinking big DIPA. As the last swallow is consumed all you can think of is "I’d love to do another!" A must try for ALL hopheads!

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.

Awesome double IPA, copper color with a thick off-white head, great lacing around the glass, huge hoppy nose with notes of pine, citrus & bread, medium-full body, very smooth & drinkable, creamy texture with flavors of bitter hops, citrus, yeast & just a touch of alcohol, warming finish with more bitter & dry hops, a bit more alcohol in the aftertaste as well, fantastic beer

Hazy orange pour with white lace head that coats the glass. The aroma is absolutely enticing! Sweet chewy hops. The flavor matches wonderfully. I don’t want to write, I just want to drink more! Why or WHY can’t bells ship to NY. A phenomenally tasty beer.

Conspiracy theory: every year I forget to rate this beer, every year I wonder where all of my tax return money went; empty case boxes in my garage, hmmmmmm. Light golden color, short head, great lacing. Enticing fresh hoppy sweet citrus aroma, an amped up two-hearted with bonus grapefruit. Super thick and smooth palate. Starts off with a hit of bitterness and sweet malts (I think they put honey on the label just to confuse us), every sip ends dry with a bit of sugar sprinkled grapefruit. Yum.

Nice full body with a pristine head. The smell if of grapefruit and grass. The taste is full with a bit of an alcohol bite. Very good IPA.

The aroma is sweet white grapes and lementine oranges. I can smell it from a few feet away! Pours a syrupy golen color body with a nice small off-white head. Flavor starts off with the same sweet grape/citrus as in the nose. This is quicky followed up with a more bitter hop tase that’s very grassy/piney and a good bit of earthy lemons coiming back in the finish. When this first came out I bought 2 and drank one, which I was’nt overly impressed with. The second of the two is the one I’m rating. It’s been cellared for about a year.