Bells Hopslam

My first beer from Bells Brewery, and another one that I picked up while on a trip to Indianapolis. I really hope this place starts to distribute on the East Coast soon otherwise it may be time for another trip.

Bells Hopslam pours orange/yellow in color with a normal-sized white colored frothy head. The carbonation is very apparent from the pour and the lacing is adequate. Aroma is very hoppy(obviously from a name like hopslam you would expect this) and consists of flowers, spice, honey, citrus, and caramel sweetness. It's like someone dipped a nice smelling flower in honey.

The taste is where this beer shines: it is nice and bitter at first but then it leads into a sweet honey and light fruits ending. Almost no taste of alcohol even though this brew sits at 10%. A great well balanced IPA.

Appearance - 4.1

Smell - 3.8

Taste - 3.9

Texture - 3.8

Overall - 3.9/5

Bells Hopslam

This is a standard fare from a company in middle-America that is very hard for us to acquire here on the East Coast - Bells. We hear only good things from this company so Fonnie picked this up when he went out to Indiana.

The beer pours out with an orange, but red-tint, color - unlike most IPAs. It also had a minimal head - something very normal for IPAs. It smelled of sweetness and honey with a slight spice and floral notes. The texture was bitter at the beginning from the hops and then this characteristic carried through all the way through. But, it wasn't like cleaning product (like I normally compare mediocre IPAs to). The honey was hard to detect but that's because we had the beer at a lower temperature than it was supposed to be enjoyed at - should be warmer. The texture was quite sharp and it leaves a bitter aftertaste. This beer has a very linear progression of themes though and doesn't leave room for variation.

I'm not a huge IPA fan so if one get's my attention, it's worth noting. I suggest you try this beer out pending you can ever find it - it'll be well worth your time and money.

App - 4.3
Smell - 4.3
Taste - 3.7
Text. - 3.6
Overall - 3.98/5

Brew Tasting the Thirty-First

Next up is the other beer that I picked up in Indiana, this time it come straight from Bells Brewing Company - another great microbrewery that does not distribute on the East Coast (there are a lot of them).

1. Bells Hopslam