Bell’s HopSlam Review
$14.17 for a 4-pack and $18.61 for 6-packs 12 oz cans
Malt/Hops- Dry hop of Simcoe (all that’s been revealed to date)
ABV- 10%
Limited Availability - shipped at the end of January to states in Bell’s distro that ordered it
Hey you, yeah you, have you ever wanted to travel back in time? Want to time travel ten to 20 years ago? It was a simpler time after all (whatever that means) when it came to beer. The IBU arms race was in full swing and American IPAs were beginning to become some of the most popular craft beers out there. Back then, IPAs were more bitter and malty with less variety. You’d get notes of graham cracker and caramel and the beers had big flavors of tangerine and pine thanks to the popularity of American hops like Centennial, Cascade and Chinook. They were filtered and orange to amber in color. They were excellent but most of them were all quite similar. Its only features were - oh this is more pale and less bitter; oh this is more pine and less tangerine. This wasn’t a bad thing, per say, but the IPA was a singular thing, not like its category it is now.
Nostalgia for the Northwest
Back in this time, I was living in Oregon, which made its patented brand of Northwestern IPAs: single IPAs STARTED at 7% and the beer was amber colored and hoppy as all get out with names like HOP VENOM and HOP SLEDGE. These beers would numb everything, including your brain should you imbibe too many. It’s so interesting to look back at beer in terms of a year or timeframe. Beer is constantly moving forward and changing, which makes it unique. Looking back with nostalgia on the past should not make one sad for a bygone era of beers; it should remind you that these beers still exist and new beer styles will be soon added to the pantheon. The future's so bright.
When Bell’s made its entry into the market with HopSlam bottles in 2006 (it had been a draft only product at their pub in Kalamazoo, MI starting in 2004), its scarcity made it heavily sought after by beer geeks and newbies alike for years. I remember back in the day wondering how I could procure such a liquid as Hopslam did not make it to my state at the time. I still have never seen it on shelves.
That was then, what is the IPA like now? Its history is brimming with variety, starting with the “rainbow of IPAs” trend of 2011-2012: Black IPAs, White IPAs, Red IPAs! Then the fruited IPAs started coming out in 2014. Everyone was so excited about grapefruit and mango. Then the session IPA, whose high hopping and low ABV let hopheads have just one more beer. And then, the haze arrived and disrupted everything. And don’t get me started on the milkshake IPA. Where does Hopslam fit into this? It’s a relic of a time before the IPA became its own category.
What’s old is new again
What would have made HopSlam just another Double IPA back when it was released, is now, frankly, its appeal. What’s old is now new again. It is bracingly bitter but smooth. The tangerine pith and pine bough are Obama-era flavors that once defined an entire style. The beer pours a beautiful pumpkin orange and has a light sheen of haze but nothing like today’s murky IPAs. It’s boozy but not hot. It’s big but not too big with the alcohol melding all the flavors of malt and hop together. Its grassy finish is pleasant and refreshing. It gives the old guard of the beer world something to drink and wax nostalgically over while allowing new beer drinkers to experience something almost wholly new to them. All beers used to be like this?
Now in 16 oz cans in addition to 12 oz cans, I recommend sharing this one with another person if you go the tall can route as 16 oz cans make a great vessel for sharing. It was excellent as an after-dinner beer as the high alcohol makes it a great digestif.
So I know time traveling doesn’t exist, but maybe a trip back in time can be found in a can of beer.