Bells Debs Red Ale

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Amber Ale
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

(Draught, 6.2% abv version) Pours a cloudy deep amber body with medium creamy beige head. Aroma of grapefruit, caramel, toffee, pine, and some herbs. Flavor of caramel, bread, and hops (grapefruit, earth) with a dry, moderately bitter finish.

Draft at Bell’s tasting. Poured a hazy copper color with an average creamy off-white head that was mostly diminishing and had good lacing. Good malty and citrus hoppy aroma. Medium body with slick dry texture. Moderate well balanced smooth flavor with a medium bittersweet finish of moderate to long duration. Good brew.

Copper hue with a rocky off-white head and very good lacing. Malty and piney aroma with hints of grapefruit, earthy yeast, and hay field. Nice balance on the tongue between malty sweetness and hoppy bitterness. Dash of spice and tart fruit thrown about for good measure. Bitter and smoky undertone finish. The thin to medium-bodied brew has a fizzy and slighty metallic mouthfeel. If the taste didn't fade towards the finish, I would have rated this beer among the best in the standard Ale style. Still it is very quaffable and worth trying at least once.

On tap at Maduro. Poured deep peachy-amber with a creamy, well-retained beige head. The aroma picked up soft, aged caramel, redder fruit, and nutty notes with dry herbal, spicy pine, and earthy accents.. English toffee on the back.. excellent! The flavor found caramel, berries, and rich bready notes at the core with dry earthy and fruity bitterness around.. finished a touch astringent, but with a solid caramel and fruity backing.. tasty! The palate had a creamy middle with great balance between the malts and complementary bitterness.. spicy and engaging too.. somehow.

This brew pours a small head of mostly diminishing fine light brown bubbles and a medium amber brown body. It had a hoppy aroma and a somewhat smooth thick flavor of hops, malt and spices.

Bottled. When I poured this beer into my glass, it poured a mall tan head that had medium sized bubbles that fully diminished. The lacing was good on the sides of glass. The body was clear and the hue was reddish. It had a moderate hoppy aroma and also an aroma of clove and a hint of citrus. There was no carbonation present with this beer. It was bitter tasting from start to finish and the bitterness seemed to linger for a while after finished this beer.

Sample at the Bell’s tasting at Brews Cafe on 3/6/08: This brew is a clear reddish-copper color with a thin off-white head that burns away quickly. Spotty lacing. Aroma of light hops, earthy malt and citrus. Light to medium body with mild hops, toasted malt and spice flavors. The finish is hoppy and malty with notes of pine and citrus in the aftertaste. Above average overall.

This beer is a lot like sports in that it is a game of two halves. To begin with, I misinterpreted this beer from its name. "Red ale" made me think it was a mild amber-like beer, although coming from Bells I did suspect they'd make it interesting. (When I first saw the name "Eugene V. Debs" I saw it on the board of a legal history class I had as an undergradute, and I thought it was a court case: Eugene *versus* Debs...silly me. But now I understand how this is a play on Debs' "red" communism.) At any rate, this started boldly, reminding me of an English strong ale or mild barleywine, so full of raisin and vintage flavors in a malty body. It had tang and zing, with a bubbling carbonation released in the mouth. But it faded for me into a sour and slightly watery ale, leading me to wonder whether this was inspired by a Flemish red ale. Wonderful aroma and hazy red-brown body (with lasting bit of off-white head)...but those flavors...they collapsed in the second half for a real disappointment.