Bells Batch 7000 Ale

Formerly brewed at Bells Brewery
Style: Imperial Stout
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Bottle from Tytoanderso - Thanks! Dark brown pour with a large cinnamon colored head and stunning lacing. Nose is rich with roastiness, cocoa, molasses, and dark fruits. Flavor is again rich with sweet dark fruits and molasses, roasted malt, vanilla, dark chocolate, and hints of mocha. Nice creamy mouthful and a great warming affect. Simply beautiful. I wish I had an Expedition on hand to compare with...

Bottles courtesy of Boboski and Pantanap! Pour is very dark brown, almost black. Big, creamy brown head. Looks great. Aroma of alcohol, chocolate and roasted coffee. Lacing is good. Time for a try...mouthfeel is very nice. Full and creamy. Pretty boozy up front. Slightly bitter with a good roasty finish. I think I will let the other bottle sit another year, and then try again.

12oz. Bottle: Aroma is sweet. Smells of dark malts, chocolate malts, roasting, dark fruits, and a hint of liquor. Poured dark black with a small brown head. Flavor is medium sweet. Tastes of malt, chocolate, coffee, dark fruits, alcohol, and licorice. Full body. Smooth, viscous texture. Soft carbonation. Coffee finish. Overall, very good.

Finally got my hands on this one again. I didn’t know how good I had it until this was gone all of the sudden. Poured black with a dark tan head. Smelled roasty, slight bourbon quality, dark (Pitch black) fruit. Taste is too many things to try to describe. Rich Dark chocolate, dark fruit, roasty, grapes, wood, hints of fine liquor. The taste just keeps going after you swallow. I really enjoy this stuff. I must try the barrel aged version.

Enjoyed several cases and many pints, including a few that were were from a barrel aged batch. Another beer that I fully intended to keep a case of, but couldn’t stop myself from drinking them! Oily black with the tiniest hint of red at the edges. THICK and trademark nose of the other big Kalamazoo Stouts with the main difference being more dark fruits and toffee evident. Better from the bottle, i thought, for some reason the nose was bigger and the flavors seemed more balanced. Tapped pints were quite alcoholic, especially the barrel aged, obvioulsy. Dryness left on the roof of my mouth was a bit too harsh fresh from the tap (both at Bells, Kalamazoo and Bone Dry, Highland, Indiana). The dark fruits in the taste reminded me a lot of the strange flavors in the big Trappist Ales, raison, plum, blackberry. Chalky in the middle with nice hints of toffee, slight espresso, mustiness. I know I weighed a lot less before I finished about 14 six packs of this stuff.

Bottle from a trade. First Impression is wow...awesome smell. Sweet, dark and thickly alcohol aftertaste. Chewy, 50 degrees and below kind of beer. I like this, it’s tasty. It’s a beer I’ve been wanting to taste, but kept passing over it in my cellar. Now, I’m glad I have another one in there in the back, it’s damn tasty now....but another year...Wow.... What a great end to a fantastic beer evening.

Tasted from bottle from cquiroga at Alesmith’s Sept 2007 BA release. Big thanks Chris!!! Near the end of the tastings, so not the optimal time to rate. From notes: Crazy rich aroma of molasses and thick sweet malts. Freakin’s awesome. Sweeet! Tempted to give a 5. 10,5,10,5,19:4.9 Tried again at PP bottle shop. Bottle from Styles. Not nearly as good this time. Still good though. Hmm? 8,3,8,3,17: 3.9

Thanks SoLan!!! I have been wanting to try this beer for quite some time. Pours midnight black with the smallest brown head. Aroma is what I expected, a full frontal assualt of roasted coffee, chocolate. a hint of licorice. Flavor is robust and bold, subtlety has been tossed out of the window. Undulating waves of flavors assault the senses, dark malts, coffee, bitter chocolate and a hint of warming alcohol. Absoltely wonderful.