Churchkey got their hands on a cask of Bell's Hopslam. Being a fan of the beer I was quite interested. It is a hard beer to get even in the bottle. It is very expensive because of all the hops and the brewing process. Stores usually sell out of their annual stock in a few days. To taste all those honey and hop flavors from an unpasteurized fresh cask would be quite the treat. This was supposed to be the only cask in the DC metro area.
Churchkey was tapping it at 4:00pm on a Monday. I assumed this would go quick and wanted to be there before the 5:00 rush. Luckily Teri and I were able to escape the office around 4:30 or so and get there right on time before 5:00. All the seats were already full but there wasn't anyone standing around yet. And everyone had a light draft in front of them which is unusual for this craft beer bar. I ordered two pulls of the honey nectar and we smiled as we got the first whiff of hop floral aroma. I thought it tasted very good. It's a hop explosion beer so it is going to be bitter but I think they did a good job getting more of the floral aspect of the hops. Teri enjoys the bottled version but she couldn't drink this from the cask. I forget her exact description but it was as if it took off her taste buds. I've had crazy bitter beers and I didn't think this was that bad. I could of had a few more.
That was not to be the case though. At 5:26 the cask was tapped. It ran out in 86 minutes. Glad we got there early. I didn't realize there were that many beer geeks that had an interest in Hopslam, knew about the event, and could get there before 5:00 on a weekday.
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