Bells Batch 5000 Ale

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

12oz bottle, just had its 5 year anniversary! pours a dense brown with very small tan head around the rim. nose is very smokey, meaty, and caramel. flavor is really smooth and balanced, smoked meats and gouda, beef jerky, mellow caramel and toffee notes, that finish very smoothly with no signs of 9%abv. mouthfeel is very smooth. carbonation is low. this has aged gracefully.

Bottle. Pours a murky brown color with minimal head. Smoky, beef jerky-like aroma. Excessively smoky with a very meat-like flavor as well. This one was tough for me.

NorCal tasting Feb 07 - This was brought over by MI2CA during his trip out West. An aroma which is mildly smokey, malty sweet and slightly woody. It didn’t get a higher score simply because everything was so mild. Nothing really jumped up and grabbed me. Flavors had a bit of plastic and smelly ass, along with a noticeable alcohol bite and a bit of tobacco. Nothing really remarkable about this beer. Perhaps it’s well past it’s prime. A shame.

Meaty and smokey, like drinking beef jerky. This was the first smoker I’ve had, so it was an experience. Had this from a basement bottle two years ago. Would recommend to anyone if for no other reason than the rarity of the style.

Pours out a nice bright amber colro with a very small amount of head. Aroma was very smoky. Flavor reminded me of Hickory Farms Smoked Cheddar Bacon Cheese. Which I like as well as this brew. Not something i would want to drink alot of though

Enormous thanks to Dave for this one! Semi-translucent and cherry-amber in color with slowly responding, pinpointed lace. Best aroma ever. Hickory, and smoked applewood get smothered in caramel goop. Shingles and tar are knowingly entrenched in a caramelized nut sauce. Almonds and pistachios are left toasting overnight to the persistent campfire. Thanks be to heaven for the alluring, enflamed maple vats. Flavor freely fulfills the aromatic promise. Sweet maple syrup and fudge meet in the middle with smoke-filled almond shells avec sooty nuts. Savoring the sips, the wood flamed oak bark and oats take precedent above the myriad of beautiful contributors. Enamored with the maple bark, broiled toffee kicks in and is joined soon thereafter by café au lait, with liquid smoke added in place of flavoring syrup. Chewy toffee, brazed caramel sauce and planks of maple laid down over flame bring a finish that couldn’t be any more blessed.

Milwaukee YeHA! 2006

I don’t know where this came from, but it was a nice surprise. I only got a small sample unfortunately but I could easily have shared a half bottle with someone. The taste was a bit unusual so I can see how some people might hate it. Still, it is a nice change from the sour beers of earlier in the night.

Aroma / Appearance - Scents of hot sugar cured ham and used oil wafted out of the glass. It was sort of like Christmas dinner, if you held it at the local mechanics. The body was a caramel brown with no lacing or head.

Flavor / Palate - The initial sip was sweet and smoky. It reminded me of drinking a flat Dr Pepper in a smoke filled bar. If this were available again I’d buy a sixer for sure. The all too brief sample was enjoyable, fun and easy to drink. The finish was a little hot but it complemented the other characteristics well.

#250. 12 oz bottle pours a brown-rasin color with a beige ring for a head. Holy smoke aroma, this is aged and thought this aroma might fade but damn. Campfire smoked ham, wood, peat, burnt wood. Sweet flavors begin chocolately and a little burnt carmelized sugars fading to dark malts, smoked wood flavors, and alcohol. Has a burnt carmel smoke finish. This is amazing.