Bell's Hopslam (2018)

Pass.....The BS to get this beer in Philly is stupid. Its distributed by one place and they keep most of it to sell from their place. You can only buy one case per car even if 2 people come together. If they decide they sold enough for the day then your out of luck that day. Pushing $70 plus a case I see no reason to even bother with this beer.

The local beer distributors get so little. A few years back I put my name on a case. I never missed out on anything that was reserved and this place sells tons of beer. I got a call that only a few cases came in so they were breaking the cases into 12 packs so everyone on the list could get some. It never made it to the general public and was priced at over $40 for 12 beers.

It is good the few times I have had it but there are other beers for less and easy to find. Maybe I get lucky and find some in the mix 6 at the market near me that has no clue.

Enjoy

 

This is one of the few limited releases I look forward to every year. There seems to be no shortage of it around these parts, unlike some (many?) others. I'm in.

 

PA is split into two different areas for Bells distribution I think. Our side gets plenty but its not sent out to local beer distributors, its sold from the main distributor. They also run a retail operation and since they sell so much Bells all year they claim the majority for themselves. Driving a few hours to maybe get beer is BS by me. If most was sent out to retail accounts it would be easier to find.

Enjoy

 

Yup, in years past Shangy's would get a lot of discussion by BAs for this whole Hopslam thing. I don't recall seeing much discussion last year (and the year before?). Maybe Hopslam is becoming passé since it is not a Cloudy IPA?

Cheers!

 

The times they are a changin'...Hopslam was sitting in the supermarket here in upstate NY for months last year.

 

I think that's true around here. The local facebook beer groups, etc. are filled with more hate than love for hopslam. Personally, when I try the hyped local beer that the buzz says is supposed to be so much better, I usually wish I just passed and bought another 6 pack of Hopslam.

 

Sometimes the best direction is away from where the crowd is heading.

 

Gee, I'll have to tell the retailer who gets mine for me that he isn't supposed to be getting any and have him send it all back.

 

It may still be a good beer, but it's very expensive around here($24 a 6 if I recall and that's at the reasonably priced stores). For less that that, I could get a 4pk of virtually any NEIPA including local options. Hopslam was one of the first beers I chased, but it just doesn't check my radar anymore. I would order a draft of it if I saw on tap though

 

Tom, how many cases does your local beer distributor get? If my memory serves me correctly my local guy got two cases last year. He kindly gifted me with a single can. I suspect that he may have done this to others - give away one can per customer so to not piss off folks by telling them he did not receive enough to sell the the beer to many customers?

Cheers!

 

I don't recall the exact price(s) but my memory was in the neighborhood of 20 bucks for a 6-pack (for those retailers who had product to sell).

Cheers!

 

Looks like a trip over the border to Michigan is coming this week. Gotta drink 'em before the hops fade!

 

Jack,

No idea about total number of cases he gets, just that I have no trouble getting what I want. But then I buy a lot of beer from him and this guy also sells a lot of Bell's beers throughout the year and that is what determines how much of an allocation he does get.

 

I've heard that now that it is not as hard to get, that it does't taste as good.

 

It certainly not worth how much they charge for it. I will wait for the Waldo's to get hopslammed for real (Stronger & cheaper)

 

I've never seen it at the local Binny's, they say it's gone in a couple days. Several small mom'n pop stores get and they sell it by the bottle at $8-10 a pop. They do that with all the high demand beers such as hi-westified, willetized etc. So $24 for a sizer seems reasonable.

 

People hate Hopslam?

That's cool - more for me!