Bell’s Brewery – Hopslam Ale 2011

Today I was called upon by my company to assist another clinical engineer at the hospital in Ft. Oglethorpe, GA.  It is a bit of a drive, around two hours to be exact, but it always excites me due to the fact that there is a trip to Beverage World in my future.  This also makes SnobRob a happy camper.  If you live around Chattavegas you need to visit this place.  They literally have hundreds of different beers for sale by the bottle (create a sixer), by the six pack and a few dozen specialty 20oz bottles.  The selection is top notch.

Today I happened by Bell’s Hopslam.  I have long been a fan of Bell’s Brewery since my first taste of Two Hearted Ale.  I recently visited Bearden Beer Market for a small purchase and grabbed a few of the New Belgium Brewery glasses.  They are the perfect size and shape to enhance the flavors/aromas and they even have laser etching in the inside bottom to cause micro bubbles to rise to the surface giving you a great aroma.

Now for the snobopsys.  From the first yellow/orangish pour I literally can taste the hops just from the aroma alone.  Bell’s uses six different hop additions as well as dry hopping with Simcone hops at the finish.  You get a huge  floral and spicy citrus aroma with a bit of an alcohol nose from the 10% abv.  This beer has great body and the taste is fantastic.  The hops come through strong but there is a perfect malty backbone to compliment the copious amount of hops.  To finish off  your palate you get a nice sweetness from the honey with just a little bitterness at the end that lasts for a few minuets or so.

Final snobs: Perfect balance between huge hop aroma and flavor with a perfect amount of malts and sweetness derived from the honey addition.  If you don’t like this double IPA, I’ll be very surprised.  This beer is friggin’ good folks.