Bell's Hopslam Ale

A fresh bottle of 2011 Hopslam recently found its way into my hands.  This will be the first time I've had a Hopslam and I'm fairly excited since this is a highly hyped beer and this continues my recent kick of highly hopped beer. "A biting, bitter, tongue bruiser of an ale. With a name like Hopslam, what did you expect?" I have high expectations and I hope I don't end up disappointed.

Here is the description from the Bell's website:
Starting with six different hop varietals added to the brew kettle & culminating with a massive dry-hop addition of Simcoe hops, Bell's Hopslam Ale possesses the most complex hopping schedule in the Bell's repetoire. Selected specifically because of their aromatic qualities, these Pacific Northwest varieties contribute a pungent blend of grapefruit, stone fruit, and floral notes. A generous malt bill and a solid dollop of honey provide just enough body to keep the balance in check, resulting in a remarkably drinkable rendition of the Double India Pale Ale style.

After recently using some honey in a batch of homebrew. I'm pretty intrigued to find out how well honey works in a big beer like this. 


Hopslam is a deep golden-orange with a slight bit of haze. The bright white head laces down the glass with every sip. 


The aroma is filled with citrus hops from the dry-hopping. Lots of apricot, grapefruit, tangerine. I have a really soft spot for beers that are heavy on citrus aroma. There is a subtle caramel sweetness that hangs around as well. The aroma is huge and I can smell it across the room. For a hop dominated aroma it is really complex. 


The hop bitterness and flavors are thrown right at your tongue when you take a sip. Lots of grapefruit, pine, and some grassiness. Like the complex hop aroma there is a nice complex hop taste as well. The hop bitterness is biting, but not overwhelming since there is plenty of sweetness to balance it all out. The honey works really well to add sweetness and overall balance. This is a beer of bigness. The huge hop bitterness is balanced by a huge malt/honey sweetness, but the balance is there. The 10% ABV stays hidden under all of it, which is a pleasant surprise. 


I was secretly hoping that I would be disappointed by this beer so I could be the contrarian, but it is really an excellent example of how a big hoppy beer should be. Lots of bitterness, lots of hop flavor, and a balancing sweetness that adds to hops instead of masking them. I really need to get more of this and next year I'll be timing a trip back to PA around the release of Hopslam hopefully. I'm officially on the Hopslam bandwagon. One of the best DIPAs around.

Sierra Nevada Hoptimum

I just picked up a bottle of Sierra Nevada's Hoptimum tonight and couldn't wait to crack it open. This thing is screaming hops at me even before I open it. The label boasts that this is, "The ultimate whole-cone hop experience." I hope it is!

I really dig the label and I'm usually neutral about most bottle labels and SN never really has anything this eye catching.

The beer specs:
ABV: 10.4%
Original Gravity: 22.8 Plato
Final Gravity: 4.5 Plato
Bitterness Units: 100 IBU
Color: Orange Amber
Bittering Hops: German Magnum
Aroma Hops: Simcoe & New Proprietary Variety
Dry Hops: Simcoe & New Proprietary Variety
Topedo Hops: Citra & Chinook
Malts: Two-row Pale, Golden Promise, Munich & Wheat
Yeast: Ale




I could smell the hops as soon as I started the pour. There is a dominate tropical citrus smell (grapefruit, tangerine, and mango) with some earthy hop aroma as well. The taste is unsurprisingly filled with hops, hops, and more hops as well. The initial hop flavor is herbal and spicy. This flavor gives way to pine and orange flavors on subsequent sips. The hops are clearly on display here, but there is a reasonable amount of caramel sweetness there was well. The bitterness is definitely tongue dominating, but I don't find it to be too much.

At 10.4% ABV I expected some of the alcohol to creep through into the aroma, but it never did. I did pick it up in the flavor and it was a little warm. That is my only knock against it really, but it is not that distracting since there is a really nice oily, full-bodied mouthfeel.  


I really enjoyed this beer. Since it looked like the bottle shop I go to was fully stocked with Hoptimum I'll have to make a trip back soon to pick up another bottle or two. This is another winner from SN and I'm really glad they put out a bigger beer like this. They can clearly make these big hop beers well.