Bells Batch 5000 Ale

Formerly brewed at Bells Brewery
Style: Smoked
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Pours a clouded deep mahogany and ruby brown orange fringed with a rim of off-white. Aroma of smoked bacon, with grilled swordfish. This over a medly of aged fruits and malt. Over a stong ale? Wow! Has greasy meat and salmon touches, that are not unpleasent. Flavors are quite savory at first, with a hint of gentle garlic and dill, mingled with smoked salmon fat. Strong fruit and cherries kick in, much like a classic dark strong belgian. But, it continues with an underlying gentle and delicate smoked pork fat. Accompanies the gentle malt, fruit and apples with grace. Bright and well presented to the palate. The deft mingling of gentle campfire and pork fat dance with caramel and toffee in a graceful manner and overall harmony. I’m really impressed by how well the two disparate flavors intermingle so well. This is truly a special treat. Signs of mellowing and gentle and fantastic ageing are true in the ale side of this beer. A hint of cranberry vinous notes in the backend. In the aftertaste the smoked woodchips mix with a gentle bread and yeast. All around, fantastic! Palate is sweet and clingy, with an everlasting pleasant flavor that I wish would never end. Thanks cquiroga!

Coppery, California Redwood coloring with practically no head at all. Almost could be mistaken for a Belgian Quadruple, but without the trademark yeasty aromas. Smells like delcious smoked salmon, and I’m not saying that to be totally obvious with this impression. The smoked meat aromas have a greasy, fatty quality to them that could not be found in a fish outside of the trout/salmon species. Some red berry aromas lurk beneath the smokiness, but they’re difficult to discern over the smoky dominance. Wow. I’m very impressed by the level of balance between the different flavor elements. Its almost like drinking a smoked brown Belgian Strong Ale. Sweet, vinous qualities. Carbonation is mild and it tastes as though the beer has had ample time to mellow out and leave behind its sticky sweet flavor residues. A bit of a honey smack at the conclusion. I’m very sad to see my glass empty completely and conclude this fine tasting experience.

Brown amber body with a thin gray head. Smoke, booze, banana leaves, and Tabasco nose. Sweet light woody flavor, a touch of dry apple. A dry finish. A nice sipper, not something I could drink more than 1 or 2 at a sitting. A really dry finish, with a bit more lingering smoke, the alcohol bites me hard. thanks again Jeff Ap-3 ar-7 tas-6 pal-2 ov-14

(12 oz bottles: Obtained in trades with CaptainCougar and Eyedrinkale, thanks Tom and Mike!) I know this was bottled four years ago this month, but I have to admit to not being inspired to rave about this beer. There are a few fairly prominent flavors that I’m having a tough time overlooking, chief among these is the first impression of Band-Aids. Also, oxidation seems to have had some effect, and the woodsy, earthy flavor is rather extreme in comparison to the other flavors. The beer is generally sweet and fruity initially, but also gently tart for good balance there, with moderate bitterness and the pleasant smokiness setting in toward the finish, but this beer also seems oddly salty to me as well. The nose is fairly earthy and woodsy, lightly sweet, but not really showing much smokiness. Heavy, somewhat syrupy body, but enough anti-cloying aspects keep the beer from weighing down the palate. Carbonation is light, as expected. Very murky, ruddy, light brown color. The light tan head barely caps the beer on the pour and quickly fades away into oblivion, leaving no lacing on the glass to prove its existence. Still pretty enjoyable after all these years, but I have to think that this bottle was probably better a couple of years ago. Right now, it just tastes like an aged, somewhat oxidized and earthy barley wine. I have one more bottle of this, and I’m thinking I probably won’t wait too long to do my Bell’s Batch X,000 flight.

Bottle (obviously). Interesting. My first thought was band-aids. Then I let my palate adjust from the Alexander to thick and smokey and yum yum. A little unusual for a brew this size to be smoked. Aroma is pleasantly smokey with a touch of malt sweetness. Thick malt flavors balance the smoke nicely. Creamy mouth feel makes this one delightful to consume. Rather sticky finish as well. Thanks EDA!

Bottle from goldtwins...thank you Larry! Pours like melted caramel with almost no head, a slight fizzyness of white appears above the body. Nose is smoked fish, possibly trout, some saltyness, ham, and campfire. Taste is huge malt, lots of caramel. As you ponder the taste, the smoked flavor lightly coats your mouth and makes you happy you are in the deep woods camping, only your at your house watching the shitass lions get destroyed by a team with two players people know.

Tasted from a bottle courtesy of Andy at the Champaign-Urbana Beer Club August meeting. Boy this was unique stuff. Smoke, bacon fat, smoke, bacon, fat...more fat, toffee, caramel, smoke, and roasted pecan wood. Finished with with a long and complex hop note with some sweetness. It was drinking marvelously last night.

7/31/05. Poured out of 12 oz. bottle, shared with CaptainCougar on RateBeer in Escondido, CA 7/31/05. Orange-brown, slightly hazy body. Not much head but I love the color. Aroma is sweet and cedary, with rounded maltiness and brown sugar, somewhat like wood chips for a fire. Call it a smoked barleywine. Color me impressed. The flavor is somewhat meaty, tangy, sweet, surprisingly laced with a residual tobacco-y bitterness and some faint dark earthiness. Some alcohol presence, and perhaps a bit too sweet (I can imagine this was overwhelmingly cloying in its initial release), but what a ride it is. . . I think it’ll continue to get better, because the smoke profile continues to get more complexly integrated with the malts as the sugar rounds out. Body is very oily, almost gelatinous, full and gentle. Finish is long and hauntingly, sweetly smoky-- the subtle and complex caramelly smoked malts being the unifying component here-- rife with German malt notes and a woody, earthy character I’ve never experienced before; sticky and wonderful. A fantastic barley wine. A fantastic smoked beer. A wonderfully unique, fine, fine brew.