Earlier this evening, my girlfriend and I made a random trip to Martha’s Vineyard, a local wine, liquor and beer store. Our original plan was simply to pick up a few things to snack on, but that changed before we fully made it through the door. I was immediately and kindly informed that they had six packs of Bell’s Hopslam for $12.49. Normally, it’s about $18-$20/six pack.

At first I thought this was kind of strange since I know this year’s release of Hopslam isn’t until the end of January or beginning of February (depending on your location). As I approached the cooler, my second thought was confirmed: it’s last year’s batch, which is why they have it at such a great price.

Is year old Hopslam a bad thing?  Not in my opinion. Knowing that a fresh batch is about to come out, I jumped at the chance to be able to have a side by side comparison of the two. And on top of that, the 2011 Hopslam still tastes great!! Thank you to Josh at Martha’s Vineyard for letting me know they had this beer. Get some before it’s gone!

In a previous post, I wrote about some beers tasting better when they are consumed within a few weeks of being bottled. Most of the time, those beers are IPAs or DIPAs (double IPA). Although Hopslam is a DIPA, this particular one has withstood the test of time as it is proving to my taste buds as I write this post; however, the true test is just a few weeks away. I’m looking forward to tasting both and I’ll be sure to let you know how it turns out.

Even more exciting than that is the possibility that my friend Steven will be in town from California and will be able to join in on this tasting. He’ll also bring with him several west coast beers we can’t get here in Michigan. One of which I’ll mention now is called Pliny the Elder (#4 on Beer Advocates top 100 beers in the world) from Russian River Brewing Co.

Cheers!

Photograph by Lizzie Photo