Bells Batch 8000 Ale

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

A rich, deep brown pour with a creamy and frothy head. Aroma ranges from burnt sugar to cinnamon to orange. The flavor has a remarkable amount of complexity with a Christmas-y flavor and a quick, herbaceous finish. Batch 8000 would pair exceptionally well with a younger, more complex gouda and almonds.

Wheaty, sweet citrus, and very spicy, corriander and grains of paradise, great fruit aromas. Pours cloudy orange almost copper with a dense white head. Wheat, spices, the alcohol makes its presence known, I get the grains of paradise coming through, some corriander, a slight bubblegum flavor. Not bad.

Pours a medium cloudy orange with a faint head. Lots of yeast in the bottom of the bottle. I poured it too cold so I will try another bottle at a later date and re-rate the appearance (hopefully it will produce a bigger head). Wonderful aroma of big spice, coriander, ripened fruits. Flavor is of spicy wheat, fruit zest, touches of pepper. Sort of reminded me of New Glarus Dancing Man Wheat.

Pours a cloudy, glowing, orange-amber body. A medium, spongy, off-white head settles to a frothy 1mm blanket of foam that holds well. Random dots of sudsy lace are scattered about the glass. The aroma is fruity and complex, showing sweet plantains, candied orange peel, lemon chiffon and light coriander, all over a light caramel base. The flavor again shows caramel underneath, with a strange tropical fruit flavor (paradise seed?), orange peel, light cream, and coriander. Just on the heavy side of medium bodied and slightly sticky, though not overly cloying. Short, clean finish. This one is about as bright and refreshing as a 9% beer can be. Resembles a really good Abbey Tripel.

Cloudy orange color with decent white head. Went perfectly with my spicy pork chops. Getting big orange aromas. Some spice in there as well. Nice wheat flavors. Some sticky sweetness and a malt profile to give this one some body. Slight alcoholic burn on the back end is a little disappointing. I see where you can’t really call this a wheat beer but it feels more like that than it does a belgian strong.

Luckily I was able to get a hold of three bottles of this one batch brew. Thick orange color, hazy and deep. One inch cloudy off white head, nice lacing, and steady carbonation. Heavy wheat aroma, dry to the nose. Fresh banana and orange citrus with some spicy coriander. This smells wonderful. Fairly dry on the palate, finish is a touch tacky. The ABV burns slightly, but it’s not offensive. Somewhat sweet and bitter, the mouth feel is complicated and odd, but it works well enough. Perplexing flavor, it captivated my interest but after enjoying a couple bottles I can say it’s very good, but not great. Amped up Witbier flavor, strong and powerful. Crisp wheat with some dry honey. There’s a noticeable bitterness in the flavor, perhaps this has a big dose of hops? Mild citrus fruits with light spice. The flavor does fall short of being great, it just doesn’t pull together. Taking a delicate style to begin with and boosting it to a high gravity beer can be a tough task to accomplish. It’s a great drink, and I’m glad I got to get a few.

This beer seemed like it was trying to hard to me...I had a really good witbier at a restaurant over the weekend ("Trucadero White"), which seemed to be what this beer intended to be. Intensely spiced with a good amount of maltiness. This beer is even more malty, but this body, when combined with the spice makes this seem almost like a pumpkin beer or maybe a spiced holiday beer. This is beer is a mouthful, and while not bad (I’m liking it more even as I write this), I feel like you should know what you’re getting into! Appearance is a dark cloudy amber. Aroma is strongly spiced, but with a hint of maltiness. Flavor is as I’ve described above. Mouthfeel is very sticky.

Bottle. Aroma or wheat and coriander and perhaps touch of yeast and it’s quite a nice blend. Poures a light copperish. Flavor was interesting, little bit of pepper and some orange very strange almost hard pick out. Palate was nice, medium fullness an interesting lingering pepper and sweetness. Overall, I liked it and I’m gonna take my time with the rest of it.