Bell's Hopslam will be bottled this year

I appreciate your post Jack, and in view of your response decided to do a bit of research in the old NW forum. The last time we received any Hopslam out here was in January 2017. I previously indicated that I wasn't sure how fresh it was at the time; I can now confirm that it was uber fresh. It appears the Hopslam we received was no more than a couple weeks old when we got in kegs and cans. I think I ordered a glass at the local Growler Guys the day after they tapped their keg. Several of the posts from back in 1/17 commented on how fresh the beer was, and what a pleasant surprise that was.

Anyway, two or three weeks from canning/keg date is pretty comparable to the HS I purchased in SEPA, DC and later Ohio when I lived on the East Coast. As I mentioned in an earlier post, HS was a beer I absolutely adored when I lived back East. So much so, that I would happily make an hour or two drive to obtain some when it was released.

Yet as I mentioned in my previous post, the beer I purchased in 2017 (on draft and keg) could almost have been a completely different beer. It tasted very sweet and boozy to me, with virtually no detectable hoppy bitterness on the finish. It was a chore drinking through the 6 pack I purchased, and after the second glass of the beer on tap, I stopped ordering it.

Prior to that the last time I had it on tap and in bottle was in Ohio. I'm pretty sure that was in early February 2013. I thought it excellent as always back then.

Granted, a lot can change in 4 years, but even so... it's pretty hard for me to come up with any explanation other than the beer recipe has changed or my palate has. I guess I would be curious to try it again, just for old times sake, but like you I've pretty much given up on it and am happy to look elsewhere for my DIPA fix.