Bells Batch 4000 Ale

Formerly brewed at Bells Brewery
Style: American Strong Ale
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Tremendous thanks to StewardofGondor and mista Styles for the opportunity! Bottle poured a hazy deep caramel with a short off-white head. Heavy old ale-ish aroma with rich, porty caramel, toffee, boozed-up darker fruits, and other dark sugars. Flavor was much like the nose... chestnutty-spices added.. lots of fruit and some port in there... very mild oxidation.. Heavy.. Warming.. Satisfying! Smooth across the middle and dry. Alcohol highlights and warmth play a supporting role. Tremendous beer that falls on #800! WOO!

Translucent and fiery amber-copper in color with a hairline, white doily wrung to serve as the head. Toffee, brandy, rummy figs and cardboard with hazelnut oils join golden raisins avec liquid nutmeg, cinnamon, brown sugar and aromatic almond liquor. Flavor keeps the momentum going. “Double mild” is right-on-the-money. Brown bread and caramel biscuits are mediated by subdued cinnamon and easy-going hazelnut sheafs. Toffee chews slowly melting and diffusing throughout the palatary playing field. Dulled butterscotch and caramel coated praline chews. Gentle carbonation and a touch of wax at the tongue’s tip. Palate smacking toffee properties and a gentle, supportive hop schedule aid the ever even end quotient. Toffee bars, praline pieces and smooth maple fudge manifest in the finish. HUGE thanks to Styles for the bottle!

Thanks Joel! The beer pours to a glowing dark amber body. Clean on first pour, hazy and murky further through the bottle. The aroma is earthy, twigs, stewed apples, barleywine characteristics. Light mint. The flavor has really held up well. It’s earthy, woodsy, cinnamon, barleywine-ish. Herbs. The palate is rich, not oxidized at all, concentrated feel. Great! Such a delight to try! Bring it back Larry!

Bottle courtesy of Styles. Thanks, Chris. Its wonderful to sample a beer this rare. Thank you. Concerning 4K, the nose revealed a strong malty and caramel presence, one akin to an aged barleywine. My first thought when smelling this was that it reminded me of the nose on the 1968 Thomas Hardy we sampled not too many months ago. The color is a mahogany brown with some solid material floating. The taste was pure caramel and toffee, very sweet, but very rewarding. Finished with some bitterness and acidity that was unpleasant, but to be expected from its age. Excellent, and a true treat. Thanks again to Styles. Overall gets a 20 for the experience.

This bottled brew from Flemdawg poured a small sized head of foamy finely sized mostly diminishing bubbles that left behind a hazy brown colored body with yeast chunks, no visible carbonation and a poor lacing. The aroma was vinous and pungent with brown malt and yeasty notes. The mouth feel was smooth from start to finish. The flavor was mild with malty brown chocolate and mil vinous notes.

Sampled April 2006
This beer is brilliantly clear and pours with a deep amber, almost garnet red color. It barely musters a ring of a pale colored head, which is not too unexpected with a beer this age. As I pour it I get an interesting fruity aroma that reminds me quite strongly of grape juice. After going in to smell the actual aroma I get notes of aged malt and hops. Notes of sherry, a rich meaty malt note that seems to almost have a meaty quality to it, and a slight note that reminds me of rum. A solid fruit note is found in the aroma as well reminding me the most of those aforementioned grapes. Perhaps there is a hint of a wet cardboard note as well, but it is not all that prominent.

The taste is not nearly as flavorful as the aroma might suggest. Much of the flavors have obviously faded over time, but there is still lots of character here, especially for those who enjoyed aged beers. Notes of aged malt, like sherry, and a rich, what I can best describe as a, meaty note. The hop character has faded quite a bit, in fact the malt sweetness is really what is left in this beer. Interestingly enough the actual malt sweetness has faded quite a bit, and age and oxidation has certainly tempered the sweetness quite a bit. Quite an enjoyable tipple overall, there is quite a bit of fruitiness to this beer, which helps to temper (though it is partially indebted to) the aged character of this beer.

Thanks go out to Styles for this one. Orangish brown in color, very murky. Aroma is rainsin or prune sweet very reminsenced of many barleywines. Other than some leafy flavors, hops have all but disappeared(from the description they probably weren’t to prevalent to begin with). Finish is lip smacking sweet.

I’ve had this a few times before, but it took a vist from hotstuff and thedm to get me to rate it. Hazy reddish/orange body witha thin off white head. Aroma was yeasty, malty and darky fruity. The taste had swee fruits and some alcohol. There was also a bit of lingering bitterness. Not too bad after 6 years or so.