Bell's Hopslam Firkin Cask

Why I tried this: It was Bell's night at World of Beer, and I was determined to try some fresh Bell's beer on tap. The Hopslam Firkin was actually one of the beers I had earlier in the night. I was originally drinking a Double Cream Stout when Logan stopped me and told me I was crazy if I didn't try the firkin. Apparently they had very limited quantity and it would be gone very soon, if not already. Kyle agreed, so I made it my next beer. Logan was being a jerkface and wouldn't give me two beers at once so unfortunately, that meant I had to slam the stout, so I won't have a proper review for it haha. This will probably be the last Bell's review I'll be doing for the time being.

Smell: I got a really pleasant floral hop scent that had a bit of bananas and lots of citrus, notably orange, mixed in. There were other faint sweet smells as well.

Taste: It sort of comes in two waves. The first wave you can taste some lightly sweet malts and more citrus/orange. However, once you get paste the initial sweetness, in comes the bitterness. The hops start to take over, and boy do they take over huge. You are left with a very bitter and hoppy taste in your mouth. I don't know if it was the firkin cask or what, as normally I really despise this, but I actually somewhat enjoyed the finish.

Overall, I'd probably give this beer a quarter pint glass. I normally don't like hoppy beers at all, and maybe it was the firkin cask doing something different, but I definitely enjoyed this beer. At 10%, it was fairly strong, but I couldn't taste the alcohol. There was just too much flavor there. The sweet smell and initial taste was a nice surprise, as in an IPA for me that is usually drowned out by bitter hops, but the hops let the other tastes come through first before they made their presence known. Very hoppy in the finish, but overall enjoyable. If you like IPAs, this is probably a must have.

--Jeff