Bells Eccentric Ale

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

12 oz bottle, 2005. Clear purple brown with a brief, tan head. Sweet nose of grape jelly, caramel and woody oranges. First sip and yes, this stuff is odd. Intensely sweet, almost syrupy, with a carb zing but not bubbly. Spiced blueberries, plums and Bananas Foster ending with kumquat-grapefruit drying. Gets chalky. Worth trying for sure.

Sampled at Larry Bell’s Brickskeller event. Dark unfiltered mahogany with tiny floating particles and an off-white head. Ginger, perfume, mint and roastyness in the nose, neat. The flavor tastes like a liquified chocolate mint Girl Scout cookie along with notes of ginger, spice , brown sugar, molasses and roastiness. Larry said they chucked everything in here including pumpkins and juniper berries but I didn’t quite pick up any of those notes. Full bodied and creamy with silky, fine-beaded carbonation. Unique, neat stuff - one of those "hit or miss" kind of things which definitely clicked with me.

2004 brew, Larry Bell Event at Brickskeller. Pours a dark, amber-brown color; off-white head with fine-bubbled lacing. Full, sweet aroma: coriander and spice. Full, chewy mouthfeel: lots of spice, white pepper, maple syrup and brown sugar; coriander, ginger, and mint (?): loads of spice. Reminds me quite a lot of Jacobite Ale, especially with the coriander. Long, spicy and mint finish. Complex, crazy friggin beer.

2004 version, sampled at the Larry Bell dinner at Brickskellar. Weird beer. One of the weirdest I’ve ever had. Looks like a porter, dark brown with some burgundy red light seeping through the bottom of the glass. Peppery ginger and mint nose, almost like a bad ginger cola or something. I was not drawn to the smell at all, and the more I drank the less I liked it. The spicy mint/ginger almost resembles horseradish and wasabi at times. Has the body of an imperial stout, quite thick, low carbonation, but that doesn’t make up for the mess of flavors that this beer has (I know that’s the point, but it just doesn’t taste good). Has some smoked meat notes as well, with some cloying molasses on the back end. 3.2

Blind rating. 2004 bottle, batch 6714. Thick, viscous body, dark brown cola colored body. Intense nose of cardamom bread and maple syrup scented bourbon. Seedy tree bark and green cardamom, thick maple throughout, viscous, full, spicy and sage-like, some tingly pepperiness, weird, overdone chewiness. Ginger, too. Not sure what’s going on in this one. I don’t really like it, seems like juniper/gin. Oxidized and stale, some cardboard, some old ale-like wateriness and staleness. Boozy nose is too much to handle.
6/4/6/3/14 = 3.3

2005 bottle, batch 7199. I tell ya what...this beer is very very different, and extraordinarily tasty. Brown colour with a thin of white head with some carbonation bubbeling from deep within. Alcoholic nose with slmethign lurking behind. The body is rich and creamy, yet sticky and lingering. Very complex flavour with a lot of sweet flavourful malts, as if it was thined out molasses. There is a hint of resin hps in there, but it is very subdued and took a back set to all of the other flavours involved. There is a biting aftertaste of herbs and plumey goodness.

2003 shared by northernbrews at CPLYFO 09. Thanks! Pours a murky deep amber with a thin lasting head. Aroma is earthy, herbal- pumpkiny squash with almost a spearminty and pine character going on. Tobacco and mint in the flavor, herbal, sage, vegetal, green bean, squash, and a sweet oxidized- soy like sweet old malt flavor with caramel and toffee- brown sugar, pine sap and minty toothpaste in the end. Crazy stuff. I think I liked the 04 a bit better.

2004 shared with Willblake. Pours a slightly hazy dull brown with a nice light thin sticky head. Aroma is phenolic and herbal with wierd muted and stale spices, lots of thick sweet crystal malts, mostly sweet and slightly oxidized. Nice big flavor profile with lots of complex malts and moderate hop character left. Some lemony hints along with wierd dried fruits like apricots and plums. Nice sweet and smooth finish. I really liked this. Gotta think a secret santa from a long time ago for this one I think?

2004, batch 6714, Ween HIV on DVD at the moment. Dickinsonbeer rambling blindly behind me, and now the Roses are Free. This beer reminds more of an older, bigger, mildly oxidized barleywine than I expected, but that’s not at all what I figured to find. But, darn it, it’s good. Eat plenty of lasagna until you know that you’ve had your fill. Eh, Ween lyrics are more interesting than this drinkable but forgettable attempt. Still worth a shot.

2004 bottle. A huge thanks to Mike for hooking me up with this very rare treat. This is something I have been wanting to get my hands on for quite some time. Pours out a brown color with a tan head and a ton of sediment all in my glass. I just recieved the box containing this beer today and I already opened it so the sediment is my fault. Smell is sweet and citrusy with some caramel and some dark brown sugar smells. Taste is sweet and heavy on the alcohol, infact, it is very much like drinking gas for the first few sips. Once I became accustomed to the alcohol burn, it was a damn good beer. A sipper in every since of the word. I have drank half of the glass in an hour. Pretty good stuff, hopefully Ill be able to score some again next time its released. Thanks Mike.