Bells Hopslam Review!!!

I had talked about Bells beer in my previous post. Well I find myself on the road again this week and just popped in to another Total Wine store to pick up a sixer of Bells Two Hearted Ale (my new favorite beer). Anyway, they have it in the chilled section, figure I'll have one while doing a bit of work and haul the rest home to Atlanta. As I am getting ready to checkout I turn around to find a few light green colored cases of beer. What did I find? Nothing other than 4 cases of Bells Hopslam. Why is this a big deal? Well, Hopslam is a very limited release beer from Bells that everyone over on the Beer message boards has been raving over (yeah, there are boards that talk only about beer, heck your reading a blog about beer so don't act that surprised). Anyway, most of it has been bought up and I didn't find any when I was down in Florida so I had given up hope of getting to try this magic elixir. Haha! Not so, here it is right in front of me. Do I buy just a 6 pack? Nope, picked up a whole case (So, of you want some hopslam, there is about 3 cases left at the Total Wine near UNC Charlotte). Leave the case in the back of my car save one beer. Take it up to the hotel to chill in the fridge overnight.

Fast forward 24 or so hours and I find myself sitting here sipping on said Hopslam. It is a quite amazing beer. So here is my Bells Hopslam review.

I do have to take exception to the description it gives itself, "A Biting, bitter, tongue bruiser of an ale. With a name like Hopslam, what did you expect?". My reasoning? I don't think it is that bitter. 90 min, Victory Hop Wallop (which is back out now, guess that is even more beer for me to buy, along with Sweetwater Happy Ending), Stone Ruination and a few others pack a much larger bitter hop bite. Maybe I am just used to the hop bite and it really takes a huge IBU to kick my palette. Anyway, it is still an amazing beer. Very floral aroma, thus you know it is packed with hops. The bitterness is more up front. Hops hit leadoff here, no malt to speak of. The interesting bit of this beer is the finish. You would expect the hop bitterness to follow all the way through to the end but you get a quite pleasant citrus note at the end. It is just sooooo smooth it, really it is. What Bells has done is brew a very sneaky big beer. Kind of like in golf where some guys are "sneaky" long, this beer is sneaky big. It is 10% abv, it sure doesn't taste like that. Hopslam really is the kind of beer you could drink three or four in a row in 40 mins after mowing the lawn on a hot day and not think any thing of it. That is until you try to stand up and fall flat on your ass. Overall this is just a Wow beer. Please Bells, I beg you to start selling beer in Georiga!!! I think this one is an add to the hall of fame, maybe. I'll have to mull that over the rest of the case I have! I'll give it 4.5 pints out of 5. (Ukrainian judge deducted .5 a pint for the slightly misleading description)

Happy Drinking!

Out of State Beer Adventures....

I was in the Ft. Lauderdale area Wednesday night and Thursday for work reasons. While I was there I figured I would try to scope out a few good beer stores and grab a few bottles of stuff I can't get here in Georgia. With the help of the directory on Beer Advocate I located 2 promising stores withing a 5 minute drive of my hotel. Keg and Case World and Total Wine. Stopped at Keg and Case World first. They had a great selection of Belgians and the guy manning the counter was very helpful. The main goal of this trip was to track down any and all Bells beers that I could find. He did tell me they have had trouble getting Bells in since the distributor changed, bummer. I did track down some Dogfish Old School Barleywine, looks very promising, and a sixer of Highland Kashmir IPA (yes I can get that here but I did want to have a few beers later and didn't really feel like hitting a 15% barleywine on a business trip). Next stop was Total wine. This place was huge and 90% wine but had a nice selection of import and craft brews. You could build your own six pack from their very nice single bottle selection. Again, tons of Belgians and American craft brews all well organized. Ended up picking up a 6er of Bells Two Heart (My new fav IPA) and a 4 pack of Sam Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner. Love the Bells, I'll have a bit more of a write up about it next week. Had never heard of the Sam Adams but I am glad I picked it up, it is rather amazing. Extremely hoppy (woohoo!) but very smooth at the same time, again a full review is coming.

I took my well bought loot back to the hotel and had 2 or 3 while watching the UNC/Clemson bball game. The next morning I packed all the beer in my suitcase using my time tested method of wrapping in newspaper and padding with clothes. I have done this several times and never had a bottle break (knock on wood) during transit. So I got to thinking, what does it say about someone who FLYS beer back from far away places he has visited? I don't know really. I think of it as expanding my brew knowledge, trying new things that I can't get at home. Sure it may be extreme to lug beer back from New York or Maine or Virginia or South Florida or Illinois or even somewhere as close as North Carolina. But the fact that I can travel to all these places and see beer brands and styles that I have never heard before says great things about the American and world wide craft brew market. More and more places and people are opening up to the huge variety of beer out there. The more the merrier I say. Let them drink a West Coast IPA, let them try a Funky Wild Yeast Belgian, try a nice dark Coffee Stout. Who knows, they may just like it.

Happy Drinking!

The Beer Snob meets a dry county and finds an oasis...

Took a nice weekend trip to the Western North Carolina Mountains this weekend. This is an annual trip that we have been making with the in-laws for as long as I have known them and it introduces some interesting challeges for the beer drinker. We stay in Sapphire Valley which is located just east of Cashiers, NC. Beautiful country that has one problem, it is a dry county. No beer, no wine, and no liquor. In the past the only was to get beer was to buy it from one of the members only bars (which we are a member of) and pay way too much or drive almost an hour to some other county that does sell beer. Well this trip added a new option. On our drive up I noticed signs for the Sapphire Mountain Brewing Company. I thought this was odd with the whole dry county thing. Turns out the Restaurant is located just up the hill from where we were staying, it is at the Sapphire Mountain golf course. We decided to give it a shoot Saturday afternoon, see what they had on draft and watch a little basketball. It is a great looking place, plenty of seating (there was a nice deck over looking part of the golf course and has an amazing mountain vista but it was a bit cool to sit outside), the bar is beautiful. They had 10 micros on tap, no macro brews here (WooHooo! Yes you could get a Miller Lite in a bottle or to go but it really wasn't advertised). A good selection: Dogfish 90, Bells Two Hearted Ale, Rouge Dead Guy, A house Amber, A house Pilsner, Thomas Creek Deep Water Dopplebock, Heavy Seas Small Craft Warning, Magic Hat #9 and 2 others that I can't think of. The house beers where brewed by Thomas Creek in Greenville, SC and where both very good. The amber ale was especially great. I also tried the Bells Two Hearted Ale (Now #2 on my list of breweries who I wish would sell beer in GA) and the Thomas Creek Dopplebock. They also had a great selection of crafts in bottles. Heck they had North Coast Old Stock on sale for $4 (it was left over from a beer dinner they had hosted) a bottle! Had a great time talking to a few of the regulars and to the bar tenders. There where probably close to 15-20 folks in the bar, which I guess is pretty good for the off-season. I hope the place does well and is around next time I am in the area. Food looked great although we didn't order anything. They also offered to-go beer and wine. The prices where very fair, a bit more than here in Atlanta but I would expect that. Picked out a 6er of the Bells Two Hearted to take home. Glad to see more and more places popping up and supporting the American Craft Beer industry. Anyway, if you are in the Cashiers/Highlands, NC area and want to visit a great beer bar with some great food give Sapphire Mountain Brewing Company a try, you will not be disappointed that you stopped.

Happy Drinking!

New Year, a new beer....

Got back from the land of 3.2 beer (Utah) in one piece. I will say I was pleasantly surprised in the beer selection in the land of Mormon. Tried a few very tasty brews at the Wasach Brewing Company including an excellent Christmas Ale. There was an upstairs "private" club where I am guessing you pay a nominal membership fee and can get in on the high gravity beer (much like the bars in dry counties across the SE US). Picked up 2 sixers of Full Sail Brewing's IPA. A very nice IPA, just right for a post skiing refreshment.

Went to visit the folks in Savannah and ran across a great new bar. The Distillery was suggested by my father of all people. Apparently my fondness of all things beer have begun to rub off on him. He remembered a review about it that he had read in the local fish wrapper so we decided to check it out. Nice open layout in an interesting location. Plenty of seats at the bar and tables and booths for those there to eat or meet up in larger groups. Food menu was quite good, even had a whole "cheap" food section that included grilled cheese sandwiches and PB&J's. Everything on in the cheap section was $5 or less and you could add a 22oz PBR to your order for a buck! On the high end beer side, they have 21 taps of all craft beer. You won't find Bud or Miller on draft (you will find it in a bottle if you must). They had a great selection on draft, all my favs where there: Dogfish, Victory, Stone, Moon River ect. I was very happy to see that the Stone selection they had on draft was Arrogant Bastard (excellent). I order one, my dad picked the Dogfish 90min, brother Will chose the 60min and I ordered Mom a Victory Prima Pils. Everyone was quite pleased. I think I have turned my whole family into Hop heads. Mom drinks beer (Corona or Coors Light) but had never had a big beer (Arrogant Bastard) or really any good craft beer (Prima Pils, one of the best). She really liked the Prima and even liked the AB, she even commented that she couldn't believe I like some of the beer I drink (Finished the night off with an Oskar Blues 1050) but don't drink coffee. Eh, most coffee isn't as good as the beer and doesn't have alcohol in it! Anyway, that is it for now. New beer reviews will be coming as well as an in depth review of my Pale Ale homebrew.