Bells Eccentric Ale

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

(Bottle courtesy ’Sprinkle’ Indy tasting 12/10/05) - 2004 - Aroma is dryer sheet, hop, sweet malt, and black pepper. Pours a muddy brown with little head and decent lacing. Flavor is funky sweet black licorice, lots of spice I couldn’t put my finger on with such a small sample. Chocolate malt and mint round it out. Palate is sticky and smooth. An interesting and very different brew.

Bottle. Thanks to SPRINKLE for the connections. Pours a dark pink color with a great thick head. Very sweet flavors here. Chocolate and alcohol notes on the tongue. Full chewy mouthfeel. Wanting this one for a long time.

On tap (2005): Aroma of caramel, toffee, banana bread, and huge citrus hops. Muddy brown with a small off-white head that quickly fades to a ring around the glass. Very quick sweetness up front of caramel, fruit, banana bread, and sugar. The sweetness quickly gets dominated by a huge grapefruit hop finish that lingers for some time in the aftertaste. Tasting it fresh the flavor profiles similar to a strongly hopped IIPA.



Bottle (2004): Same flavors as above, but with the extra year they blend much better. Hops aren’t nearly as strong and are more balanced with the malty flavors which play a much larger role in the ’04. Spice is there in the finish, but it’s so light that I can’t pinpoint what it is. 2004 is more like a barley wine.



My score is based on the 2004. 2005 would be: 8/4/8/4/17.

Filthy mud color, no head. Chocolate, cinnamon, clove, and mint in the aroma. Syrupy malt, mint, sweet chocolate, and a multitude of other spices. Sickly sweet finish. Mouthfeel is thick and chewy.

cloudy diseased brown with minimal head. aroma is allspice, cinnamon, booze, and molasses. taste is honey, milk, very lactic, rough grassy hop, lemon. finish is lingering caaramel and sweet bread. thoroughly enjoyable, good on ya.

Bottle. Smells like a barleywine. Taste-odd-sweet, yet dirty. Very thick and meaty. Almost minty at times. Hard to explain, but very meaty and dirty.

Deep dark hazy brown. Lots of sediment. No head at all, and very little bubbles. Nose is somewhat suble compared to the tase, but there is some caramel, cinnamon, and yeast present. Flavor is very wonderful. A cornecopia of flavors. Lots of biscuity malt and earthy yeast provide the backbone. Anise, toffee, caramel, cinnamon, clove, pine, and molasses are just some of the flavor motifs. Meduim thick bodied with a nice coating feeling as it goes down the throat. Alcohol is well masked, but does leave a warm feeling in the belly. A perfect winter brew. Drink it at room temp.

Poured by Larry Bell at the Great Taste of the Midwest, Madison, 2005. 1996 vintage. My wife and I were among the last to sample this one from the 9 year old bottle, and as a result, our sample was fairly loaded with sediment and yeast. I must say, Eccentric is the proper descriptive. Notes of clove, cinnamon, allspice, juniper, apple, sour cherry come out on the nose and on the palate. I get more darker flavors on the palate as well: molasses and carmalized sugar. The bottle was likely past its prime, unfortunately. RERATE: Larry poured a 2004 version at the 2008 Great Taste. I liked this considerably better, and it seems to age rather impressively. True it’s a bit too spiced for my liking (I’m never been a big fan of Christmas ales -- essentially anything I can taste nutmeg, clove, and ginger), but this was solid. Cheers to Larry, and sorry for the initial low rating!