Bell's Hopslam... then and now (Review)

Fresh Hopslam

I have too much beer. I have way too much drink fresh beer (DFB) for the rate at which I drink them, especially IPAs. This occasionally means that some of the DFBs get past their "hoppy prime" and I'm left with cooking/baking liquid, giving them to friends that don't really care about beer that much (beer is beer to them), or letting them sit in my cellar for a liquid experiment.

During the winter of 2012-13, I bought a lot of Hopslam for a few reasons (besides that it's good): 1) Hopslam was one of the first double IPAs I had, so I have a soft spot for it. 2) A friend in missouri wanted some so I picked an extra 6er up for her 3) I was in my "must by anything rare I see" phase. Well, I still haven't been able to visit with my friend (c'mon Mari!) and I didn't drink as much Hopslam as I should've, so I still have 6+ bottles of 2012/13 Hopslam in my cellar. I figured with this years release I would compare fresh Hopslam to "aged" Hopslam as I've heard that some people actually like old Hopslam. Let's get to it.

Appearance

13/14 (fresh) Hopslam- Deep hazy copper with orange highlights. Thin off-white head with sparse lacing.

12/13 (aged) Hopslam- Similar color, but I would say it's more of an orange. Hazier and just looks dull. One finger beige head that leaves clumps of lacing behind. 

Some of the difference like lacing and head may have been a result of pouring technique and the glass.

Fresh Hopslam

Aroma

13/14 (fresh) Hopslam- Notes of lemon, pine, and tropical fruits. Overall the aroma isn't very strong.

12/13 (aged) Hopslam- Aroma is stronger, but is mostly lemon and pine.

Taste

13/14 (fresh) Hopslam- Notes of orange peel, grapefruit, pineapple, honey, bitter lemon peel, and toasted malt. 

12/13 (aged) Hopslam- Ghosts of hops past. Citrus notes are still there, but aren't as bright and are sweeter. Think citrus marmalade. Lemon and pine are still around. Honey and toasted malt notes are more present. 

Aged Hopslam

Mouthfeel

13/14 (fresh) Hopslam- Medium body with light carbonation. The mouthfeel is "juicy"... I can't think of any other way to describe it. Finish is slightly drying.

12/13 (aged) Hopslam- Slightly heavier as there isn't much carbonation. Doesn't have the "juice" mouthfeel of fresh hopslam and that makes a big difference. Finish is drier and more warming. 

Overall

13/14 (fresh) Hopslam- Now I'm reminded why I liked this beer so much. There are beers out there that individually may have better, aroma, taste, etc., but this one puts everything together so well 4.5/5

12/13 (aged) Hopslam- This is what you'd expect of a year old DIPA: sweet, dank, syrupy citrus and a lot of honey. I'm not going to rate aged Hopslam as that would be unfair to the beer since it's not really meant to be aged. 

Parting Shot

Aged Hopslam essentially becomes a barley wine or almost a hop-spiked honey wine. Would I age Hopslam on purpose? No, but I'm not a huge fan of either barley wines or honey wines and I'm not going to tell you what to do with your beer. I will probably keep some of those already aged Hopslams in my cellar and see what they taste like next year. And this year's? Well I split a 6-pack with a friend and will drink them while they're still juicy and fresh. 

The Big Guy: Hopslam was the first hoppy beer that got my attention. I've always been a fan of sweet malty beers and the bitterness of hops just never tripped my trigger. It took someone making a beer that had both malty sweetness and the hops so well blended to really fall in love with hops, and I fell hard. I love how well the sweetness blends with the citrus flavors and the big bitterness at the end just finishes it all off so perfectly. This is one of my favorite annual beers and I count down the days until it comes back out. I give it a solid 5.

Flat 12 Winter Cycle Review

Winter Cycle is Flat 12's annual release that coincides with their anniversary party. This year's release will be the 3rd edition (I can count!) of this big (9.3% abv) hoppy (107 ibu) beer. To be exact this is a double IPA, with "6 hop varieties from 3 continents and "it's like Half-Cycle's pissed off viking cousin." according to Flat 12. Winter Cycle is only available in the taproom and is sold in 4-packs.

This is the first year that I've gone to the party or purchased Winter Cycle, but it always seems like this is a release that flies under the radar. Maybe the epic-ness of the party overshadows it or maybe it's because most Indianapolis beer releases outside of Sun King tend to be quiet events, whatever the case I wanted to make sure I grabbed some before starting in on the rare party offerings. 

Into the glass this pours a cloudy reddish-orange with a 1-finger beige head. There's lots of suspended particles that hang out in there (as you can see in the picture), and leaves nice lacing as you work your way through the beer. Aromas of onion, juniper, and grapefruit smack you in the nostrils. Much of the same notes are in the taste along with honey, biscuit malts, and a finish of grapefruit and earthy bitterness- yep this is Half Cycle's angry viking cousin all right. This is medium-bodied, with not much carbonation, and a dry finish. 

To me this and Half Cycle have very distinct onion and herbal notes, which is not my preferred hop profile, but I can also appreciate that this is a well crafted DIPA. 3.5/5

The Big Guy: I will be upfront and say that I love most of what Flat 12 does, but Half Cycle is not my cup of tea. I also don't really like gin and the whole juniper berry flavor in general. Needless to say I was a bit nervous about picking up a four pack of Winter Cycle, DIPA with juniper, this year at the anniversary party. Lucky for me I was pleasantly surprised. Winter Cycle was really quite tasty. The hops were well balanced by the big malt character of the double IPA. The juniper berries blended very well with the rest of the hop profile not overpowering anything. All in this had a very winter flavor to it which is great because standard IPAs always make me think of summer. Flat 12 did an outstanding job making a big DIPA that feels like the season. This thing is basically perfect for fighting the snowpocolypse! I'm going to agree with Brewnibomber and give it a 3.5

Tasmanian IPA

Our Tasmanian IPA is brewed with 100% Australian hops. The Tasmanian hop, Galaxy, is a strong, aromatic variety that is different from traditional strains of the Pacific Northwest. Our brewers developed a recipe that showcases the hop’s unique flavors of citrus and pineapple. 

Apparently I've really fallen in love with Australian hops, because I love this IPA. It was a seasonal drop, but Central IN only got 2 of the 3 drops that were scheduled. The first drop was great, but I got my second six pack just a week after the bottled on date and it was even better fresh. TIPA is 7.2% abv and a deliciously simple 60 IBUs.

It pours out a wonderfully yellow-gold color with a nice white fluffy head on top. The head sticks around for a while and leaves great lacing as you drink. The beer smells like mango, pineapple and light citrus fruits.

The tropical aroma is matched well by the flavor. You get a lot of what you smelled right upfront. Big sweet pineapple fruits and a ton of grapefruit and lemon peel. This is a freaking citrus bomb in all the right ways. I think Galaxy hops are just amazing when done right. Malt base is mild and supports the hops nicely without stepping over the flavor of the hops. It has a great clean bitter finish. The carbonation was solid and did a nice job to continuously bring out the aroma. It compliments the flavor so well, that I recommend making sure you use an IPA glass. It really does add to the experience.

Second drop just hit in November. Grab it if you can.

I give it a 4.5

Goose Island's Evolution of a Stout

You don't just start out with a great barrel aged stout. Truly great stouts have layers, like onions...and Shrek. They're recipes that are built on one component at a time. Goose Island's Bourbon County Brand Stout (BCBS) series is a shinning example of this.

The Barons just sat down at the Goose Island Migration party hosted by Twenty Tap. Goose Island brought four different stouts to the event, but after talking with their people we realized the stouts really weren't very different at all.

Goose Island brought Night Stalker, Big John, Coffee BCBS, and Cherry Rye BCBS.

To make these big impressively tasty stouts, the brewery has to start with a solid base. For Goose Island, Night Stalker is the base for these beers. Big John is just Night Stalker with cocoa nibs added to the recipe. Then we take Big John and Barrel age it to get normal Bourbon County Brand Stout. In 2012 they aged their BCBS with coffee as well creating the Coffee BCBS. They went one step further and aged the Rye Cherry BCBS in rye whiskey barrels on top of fresh Michigan cherries. You may notice that all these beers have different ABV, but that's because most barrel aged brews actually start to gain  more alcohol as the water content of the beer evaporates from the barrel. In the whiskey world they call the lose the "angels' share".

There is one more even bigger and badder stout and that's the Rare BCBS. This was a bad motha' in all the right ways. Its the same brew but it has an additional 2 years aging in Pappy Van Winkle bourbon barrels. If you've never had the pleasure of drinking Pappy Van Winkle, you are missing out. Its outstanding bourbon. Unfortunately we only got a couple ounces. It was an amazing beer, but I really didn't have enough to give it a huge review. If you ever see it... buy it and send it to me. Seriously.

Because these beers all start from the same place, it is next to impossible to tell them apart by sight (top right is the Coffee BCBS and the bottom left is the Rye Cherry BCBS). There was a bit of confusion around the table as we were all passing the beers around, but each one had its own unique aroma. Just by smell you could tell which one had coffee, which had cocoa and which had the cherries.

Of all of these wonderfully big boozy stouts my favorite was the Rye Cherry version. The Rye Cherry Bourbon County Brand Stout is a huge dark stout with great spicy rye whiskey character and some awesome bitter cherries. It comes in at 13.7% abv. It smelled like whiskey, chocolate and booze but most of all you smelt cherries. When it came to the table the head had dissipated a bit but it was oily black with just a slight ring of tan head running around the glass. My first sip was big rich almost decadent chocolate flavors mixed with very tart cherries and then melded together with the nice spicy oak flavor of a rye whiskey. Rye whiskey was a great choice because I feel like the the spiciness and the oak really helped to temper some of the overall sweetness of the beer. The cherries were probably my favorite addition because they were so tart and dark that they mixed perfectly with the dark fruit flavors from the original stout and gave the beer a bit of acidity to brighten it all up. Really I could have drank this all night. I would have been hammered drunk and probably had a belly ache for days but it would have been worth it. This beer was incredibly good and the only beer I had twice. Now I need to get a bomber to sit on and cellar, if you have one to spare let me know!

I give Rye Cherry BCBS a 5 (wish I could give it a six)

I give Nightstalker a 3.5

(Too sweet to be a 5 for El Duque)

I give Big John a solid 4

 I give Coffee BCBS a 5

Devil Dancer

Ohhh, Founders, how I love thee! As someone who has never considered myself a hophead, I've been very happy with the well balanced and exciting IPAs that Founder's Brewing has been bringing to the market. Doom, a barrel aged DIPA, was one of my favorite beers of this year, and Devil Dancer did not disappoint. If you didn't already know, Devil Dancer is a triple IPA coming in at 12% abv. It's actually stronger than a lot of wine out there and that is pretty impressive.

Devil Dancer pours out an awesome reddish color. It has just a slight mound of white head floating on the top. The aroma is a strong hoppy smell, with a bit of maltiness behind it. I was expecting a blast of something boozy, but it was masked well by everything else.

The flavor was incredibly well balanced because all of the individual components were turned up to eleven. The hops were a huge smack in the face on the front of the brew with lots of pine and citrus fruits. It was followed by a seriously sweet malt that helped cut the bitterness nicely and mellow it all out a bit. Then there is a super bitter finish in the far back reaches of your throat that masks the expected boozy heat. I'm not saying that you can't taste the alcohol, because you can, but it is well put together in a way that isn't offensive and really that's what I'm looking for. Everything is balanced, but the hops still shine like they should in a good IPA. Even with this beer being so much more intense then any other IPA I've had, it still tastes like an IPA.

This was a great beer. I am glad I was able to grab a couple so I can save one and see how it ages... yes I know I just wrote an article telling everyone you aren't supposed to age IPAs but this one is 12% abv so I am going to give it a try. I give it a solid 4.

O-Dawg:
My Hippy Beer Guy took one look at me this past Friday when I came strolling in and sprinted to the back of the store bellowing something about Tonka Trucks.  At first I thought he was having flashbacks to his childhood.  Maybe there was something in that beer I gave him last time that I didn't know about.  I didn't piece it together until I saw what he had in his hands upon returning.  In one hand a bomber of RuinTen and in the other two bottles of Devil Dancer.  For this reason alone I encourage everyone to get out of your proverbial shells and get to know your beer guy/girls.

My Hippy Beer Guy knows me and what I like (damn him!).  On one hand it helps him sell beer, seriously I don't think I can ever get out of his store without buying something...  On the other it helps you as a #craftbeergeek to get more information and helps you to refine your pallet based on his/her suggestions/information.

Back on point: Devil Dancer is a complex malt/hop bomb with mischievously high ABV.  When I have one it makes me think of an IPA that is one step away from a barley wine.  You have to go into it knowing and anticipating the ABV's.  Unless you are like The Professor, the balance of hop/malt and the boozy heat is so well done you will be on your ass before you realize too late that it is 12%. Hats off.  Well done!  Here's a Badge!

Did I forget to mention I am a Hop-Head?

KBS 2013

I hope everyone was able to get a sip of one of these brews, because they came, they saw and the rocked. KBS is the limited release Kentucky Breakfast Stout by Founders. It is a big, bold, bourbon aged imperial stout that was only available for a week-ish (if that; many stores sold out in the first three or four hours after KBS was delivered). Most liquor stores were only allotted a case or two. The beer is sold in four packs, but because of its rarity a lot of stores would sell it individually. If you got one enjoy, because this is a rare treat.

I poured this great beer into a tulip glass and began to enjoy. The aroma had a heavy bourbon smell that was almost strong enough to start getting me drunk on the spot. There was some pretty tasty coffee and cocoa scents in there too. It pours dark brownish black and it has a slight brownish tan head. First impressions of this beer were very good. It seemed warm and inviting, and made me just want to dive right in.

There was a bittersweet flavor that had some pretty nice cocoa and coffee flavors that mingled together. Behind these front running flavors there was a sweet vanilla and bourbon barrel flavor. It was sort of like a boozed up coffee that you have after a meal. There was a very nice light hop bitterness that balanced it all out.

This beer was not an easy thing to find. I was out of town and thought that all hope was lost. I have an awesome friend who took it upon herself to go out and find a few of these for me. In the next week or so we will be featuring a post by her giving some beginner's directions for finding the hard to find limited release brews.

I give it a resounding 5. Totally worth whatever effort you have to go through.

El Duque:  KBS started the big love I have for bourbon barrel aged stouts.  There's a lot out there, and I'm not sad for the styles popularity, but KBS stands as King of the Oaken Hill.  I found there to be a little more bite to it this year than in previous brews, but give this a year to cellar, and we're gonna need more heads to do this justice.

It's good to be the king.  I give it a 50, i mean 5.

Behemoth 2012

Three Floyds recently put out their Behemoth, American Barley Wine. You should be able to find it in liqueur stores around the city. It is 12% abv and 80 IBUs. This has huge flavor and tons of booze. They also released a barrel aged version. I am giving it a year to age before cracking it open (aging hoppy beers is tricky because as it ages the hop flavor gets less strong. You want to allow the booziness to mellow without letting the hops die out so I talked with someone much more experienced than I am and he recommended giving it about a year).

It pours out a hazy dark orange brown color... sort of a burnt sienna, with a nice light cream colored head that turns into slight lacing. It smells like pine and citrusy American hops mixed with alcohol... lots of alcohol. It is medium to heavy bodied with a nice amount of carbonation. So often you don't get much effervescence from thees bigger beers. It was great to get some good head and tasty bubbles.

This beer has a huge caramel flavor right up front. Big sweetness with a hint of roasted malt flavor. It is almost syrupy sweet. There is a great hop character to it all that balances the malt really well. I didn't notice it as much at first but as I drank the beer, the hops started overwhelming the flavor of the rest of the beer. It wasn't necessarily bad, actually I should have expected it from FFF. It was good enough that I picked up two regular bottles to age and the barrel aged version. I will make sure to post about the differences after giving it a bit of time to mellow out.

Go grab two of these. Drink one now and set one aside. This beer has a 100 rating on ratebeer and anything that scores that well is worth waiting on a bit. As it is I give the beer a 4 and I am hoping that with a bit more time it could be a solid 5. Check out my post on aging beers at home to get more details on how to let your beers sit right too.

Founders Imperial Stout

We have not talked much about Founders Brewing Co., but their Breakfast Stout is one of my favorite everyday craft beers. Founders does a great job and they're just across our northern boarder in Michigan. I figured while watching the IU VS Michigan State game last week, what better beer to celebrate with than the Founders Imperial Stout. This is my favorite style of beer. I pretty much love every single Russian Imperial Stout (RIS) that I've ever had... maybe not quite every one of them but damn near it.

Russian Imperial Stouts have big bold flavors. They have extreme malts, hops and alcohol content. This came from a day when brewers were exporting to northern Europe. Heavy hops (originally a preservative as well as a flavoring) and alcohol both allowed them to transport long distances without spoiling. It was named Imperial, because Russian nobility took a liking to the strong style. You better believe that this kind of brew could keep even a Russian winter chill off you.

Founders Imperial Stout has 10.5% abv and 90 IBUs. It pours dark and heavy black color, with no real head to speak of. There are just wisps of tan crossing the top of the brew. It has a big sweet coffee aroma with hints of coffee and a pretty nice forward bitterness. It is like a giant warning sign saying this beer is not messing around. The mouthfeel is smooth and creamy.

As you might expect this beer is big on flavor. The flavor has strong notes of bitter, sweet chocolate up front. Ther's a hint of bitter coffee that mixes in well with the bitter hops towards the end of the beer. There's a slight roasty, toasty malt flavor throughout the beer that gives it a nice smokiness that is very subtle and helps calm some of the big sweet notes that are so in your face in the beginning of the brew. There's also a pretty nice boozy heat mixed in at the end. It has a nice alcoholic sharpness that, when mixed with the bitterness of the hops, really closes off the beer well.



















This is an awesome seasonal release, granted I am always pumped for any RIS but this one sets the bar very high. I keep it marked on my calendar, and so should you (January/February release but it gets harder to find as it gets further into February).


I give it a 4.5

Sanitarium

There are certain things that drive me to get out of bed like Christmas morning, cooking bacon and a rare limited release beer. Sanitarium was Bier Brewery's silver medal winner at the Great American Brew Festival. Because this was a limited run of bottled brews, Bier released 50 gift sets on the 21st and 50 gift sets on the 22nd when they opened. Both days there was a line out the building of craft beer fans looking to get their hands on this bad boy.

It is a Belgian Quadruple (Abby Style Ale), which makes it one of the booziest beers around. A beer is a quad because when they were brewing on the Belgian countryside they would reuse wort. Wort is the grain sludge mixture used to make beer. The first use would be higher in sugar to produce more alcohol. This made it last longer since alcohol helped preserve the beer. A triple would be the first of three batches of beer, so it had to have a bunch of sugars. Just imagine what a quad would have to be like...

No more imagining. This beer was 13.1% abv, which is more then a lot of wines. The beer poured a hazy brown that you could not see through. It had a light tan head that falls away to lacing quickly. There was a light fruit and alcoholic smell to the beer. Normally I am a heathen and drink out of a pint, but Bier supplied a tulip glass with each gift set, so I classed it up.

The first thing I noticed was how effervescent the beer was. I was not expecting such nice carbonation from such a dark beer with so little head. The flavor was very malty with strong notes of caramel and banana. The booziness was noticeable but not in a bad way. Since I was drinking out of a tulip glass, my hands were heating the beer up faster than normal. As the beer warmed up the flavor opened up. Some of the alcohol flavor faded away and more of the fruits came shinning through. 

This beer had a long lasting sweetness that lingered on the tongue  I tried to wait to have my next sip until I couldn't taste any traces of it, and this kept me going for hours. Sanitarium was a great beer for the cold weather. If you were lucky enough to wait in line and snag one, enjoy it. I have one more that I will be holding on to for another six months or so to see if the booziness mellows out. Expect a report then.

By the way, your burps taste like banana

I give this one a 4.5 very tasty brew.

Alpha Klaus

I admit that I am totally biased towards beers brewed here in the great state of Indiana. I am also super biased to Three Floyd's, since it was the first brewery that I made an effort to visit. I consider their Christmas beer, Alpha Klaus, to be a gift given directly to me from them.

Alpha Klaus pours out a dark red almost black oily color with a light tan head. The head sits atop the beer like dirty snow covering a dark mud puddle... sorry not my best analogy. It left lacing up to the top of the glass like frost on the window... better. It had a abv of 6% and 38 IBUs.

The beer smells like chocolate and grapefruit hops with a bit of piney-ness. It smelled hoppier than most of the Christmas beers I've had this season. It was also a bit thinner and more effervescent than I expect from a Christmas porter.

The flavor has a citrus hop flavor up front, which when mixed with the aroma this can be pretty intense. It moves into a chocolatey malt flavor with some nice winter spices. In a lot of holiday beers the brewers go a bit overboard with the spice. I get it, spice is what makes it a holiday beer, but make sure it tastes like a beer first. This one did a good job with that. From that spicy note it moved back to the citrus and pine hop flavor. It closes with a subtle dryness that reminds me of bitter sweet chocolate. It leaves a bit of a bitter flavor on your tongue that just seems to make me thirsty for another sip.

This is a fun and unique holiday beer. I don't know that I would be excited to drink it all the time, but it will always make me smile during the holiday season.







Hoppier than I like but I give it a 3.5