Bells Expedition Stout

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Imperial Stout
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

12oz. bottle at home: Pours deep black with a big creamy whipped chocolate mousse sitting on top. Fantastic aroma of dark chocolate and sweet dried dark fruits. Alcohol is sweet on the nose mixing well with the caramel and toffee that is drizzled over the chocolate. Just a touch of fresh ground coffee sprinkled on top. Hmm, now I am hungry. As it warms up biscuit and toasted brown bread start to come through and some of the sweetness blows off. No astringent bitter roast or minerally and ashy coffee as with many of this style... and that is good. Full bodied and creamy thick on the tongue. Sweet toffee, with tons of chocolate run rampant around your mouth. Sweet alcohols and herbal hop bitterness then swoop down and tame the sweetness. Roast is more apparent in the mouth than on the nose. Some slight charcoal mixed with bitter bakers chocolate. Long bitter herb and chocolate finish riding a sugary vein. The chocolate notes are quite nice and multi-layered. It is definitely a good candidate for long term aging. For me this is a bit sweet and the alcohol can stick out a bit too much. Given some time that would round out quite nicely. Guess I’ll have to re-rate when there is some more age on it.

holy crap. Can’t see through pour, opaque black. Head is minimal then is gone like a dinosaur in a tar pit. Aroma is mild syrup sweet with a kick of bitter roast and dark chocolate. Thick and creamy in mouth feel...full bodied powerful flavor of dark chocolate, caramel, and dark roast malt, then gives way to it’s hop foundation with a semi-sweet roasty bitterness. Excellent stout, could make hard candy out of what was left in the bottom of the glass. Left one bottle to age.

Bottle - 2007 vintage - Pours black with no head. Motor oil, baby. Smells of dark fruit, sweet, smooth bourbon. Seems to have mellowed out a bit in the cellar. Taste is waaay smooth, with some nice bourbon and a coffee finish that flows into some dark roast and toffee. It’s smooth, syrupy, warm, and just a bit sweet. It’s not my favorite IS, but man, it’s right up there. Gonna buy a whole crapload of this to put in the cellar.

Very Dark in color. Strong notes of coffee and roast. A nice rich flavor. This is a strong beer, to be sure! Excellent one to turn to in the deep of winter.

0.355 l bottle (vintage 2008) at Akkurat, Stockholm. Pitch black color with small head. Thick rich and warming aroma with coffee, salty licorice and whisky. Bittersweet, roasty, warming and strongly coffeish flavor with salty licorice, tar and raisins. Bittersweet charcoal finish. Smooth palate with low carbonation. Excellent rich stout, although slightly too boozy.

a nice kick in the nuts. heavy black pour with a head like a high school cheerleader in the parking lot before prom. nose of heavy roast, chocolate and bitter alcohol-drenched malt. taste is stellar, alcohol trumps all. i love this imperial stout. drop the price $5 and i’l buy it weekly.

Nice stout. Complex flavor, but the smell was awkward. Great taste, but the alcohol feels forced.

Bottle thanks to ryan. Cap was filled with some gunk(probably just sediment). Beer still tasted great. Black pour with brown head. Flavor is of a normal dark roasted stout with some chocolate, far from the best Imperial stout I’ve had IMHO.