Bells Batch 8000 Ale

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

never a fan of imperial wheat and believe there is a reason this style hasn’t seen much action: wheat doesn’t have the body to justify an ’imperial’ prefix. to bells credit, this is as nice as it gets, but stilll it’s not their greatest success. good that they only brew this once.

I like a lot of Bell’s brews, but I wasn’t a fan of this beer. The best part of the beer was that it smelled delicious. It had a heavy alcohol flavor and it was jammed packed with spice. In all fairness, I hate coriander, so that doesn’t help this beer. Wish I could have more Bells 7000 instead :)

whoa- big time belgian scent- correinder, some spices, seeds of paradise. pepper and some bannanas. I was very surprised at the taste and mouthfeel. Very thick, not at all as dry as I was expecting with a slight sourness at the backend. Some serious booze there as well, and warms you up. Not a repeat purchase.

Bottle. Cloudy light orange body, medium off-white head. Nose of Belgian esters, yeast, citrus, alcohol, and some spice. Flavor like a strong, sweet, alcoholic witbier, although lighter on the coriander than most.

Bottles thanks to Gregis and Beerlando
I’m not a fan of belgians, witbiers, and hefs, b/c of the yeast characteristics so keep in mind this isn’t suited to me in the first place... Pours a gorgeous glowing orange color with a uniquely soap bubble head. Smell is like an orange infused hefeweizen with a strong spiced belgian yeast flavor that I find offensive. Thick nice mouthfeel, but that is about all I liked unfortunately about it. Flavor was strong, funky, magnified flavors of a witbier along with orange and overly evident alcohol. Probably a great beer for Witbier lovers, and especially for those that don’t mind their beers noticeably alcoholic, but this was heavily reliant on yeast flavors and just not for me unfortunately.

Goblet on tap @ Buckeye Beer Engine 8/25/07: Deep gold to light amber w/a lasting white head of fine foam. The initial aroma screams wheat malt with banana esters which sort of mutes the coriander and orange peel! Light alcohol presence in the nose is spicy, along with the yeast which is lightly peppery. Clove spice as it warms. Flavor is tart up front, but then balances well, and the coriander is more apparent in the flavor up front. Alcohol spicy notes up front into the mid palate. Light hints of orange peel gets really strong and gives it the "alcoholic orange juice" flavor. Banana esters in the aftertaste. Medium body, medium carbonation, warming alcohol, and a creamy mouthfeel. Seems more to me like an imperial hefeweizen than imp Wit? Decent beer, but the alcohol gets in the way a little bit.

bottle (thanks to Dukefan for picking us up some)....aroma: sweet malts, orange, and lightly spiced....appearance: clear orange brown. think white head....taste: unfortunately it was cloyingly too sweet. some orange notes and little spices. carbonation was a little too high and a bit astringent overall.....this one was a little too one-dimensional.

Pretty decent. Lots of flavor, spicy coriander, oragne peel are particularly noticeable but not overly strong. Similar to their Oberon, but with more flavor.