Bells Hell Hath No Fury

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

BATCH #8739 (September 22, 2008) This pours damn near black. I wasn’t quite expecting that. Big espresso foam colored head. Retention is fairly good. Lacing is all the way around and slightly sticky. This smells like a cake in a glass. Very yeasty and sugarey. Huge brown sugar presence. Lots of molasses, also. Dark fruits, mostly figs, wrapped in caramel. A decent level of maltines comes through. Mild hints of chocolate. Taste is very dark and not nearly as sweet as the nose leads you to believe. Roasted malts come out, in a big way. Lots of dark fruits are here, but they are covered in bittersweet chocolate and sprinkled with ground coffee beans. Mild notes of molasses and licorice. The feel is smooth, but the carbonation is wrong, for this style. Way too sharp and cutting. This should be much creamier. If this one were creamier, it could be a go-to beer. As it is, it’s a bit too sharp to enjoy all of the time.

bottle courtesy of coyotehunter, thank you! batch 8739. dark brown to black pour with small brown head, some yeast flakes suspended and light lacing. aroma is very light, consisting of vanilla, fresh oak, a light cocoa and even a hint of toasty coconut every now and then. taste is toasty, nice creamy mouthfeel, a smooth drinker. i appreciate the carbonation and full body that last all the way through.

Bottle from pimpp, thanks patrick. Batch 8739, about a year old...Black wax? Black pour with a one finger sized head. Aroma of some oak, raisons, dark fruits and some maltiness. Doesnt taste like the nose... light coffee, roasted malts, and chocolate. Reminds me of a stout.... Texture is on the lighter side but still good. Overall not what I was expecting but still a nice brew!

Bottle. Pour is deep brown (almost black) slight bitterness. Dry on the finish with a bit of alcohol. Big Flavors, caramel, vanilla, coffee. Good Stuff.

Another lovely bottle thanks to coyotehunter. Pours black with minimal foam. What there was disappears almost immediately. Aroma is coffee, chocolate, roasted malt, and vanilla booze. Taste is the same. There is an odd flatness to the flavor that I’m not sure what to make of. It is tasty, and the ABV is well hidden until right at the very tail end of the palate. It’s an almost metallic quality that I’ve encountered in a few beers of late and makes me wonder if something hasn’t gone slightly wrong with this one. Still, the emphasis should be on "slighty". It’s a medium bodied brew that brings a fine smokey quality and plenty of flavor to the table. Like a woman, well worth weathering the rough patches for the moments of glory in between.

Bottle, thanks to ballewblake. The smell is malts, chocolate, coffee, roasty, smoke, and nice. The look is brown to black in color with a decent beige colored head. The taste is malts, coffee, choclate, and roast.

Nice brew from Bells. Don’t get me wrong, this is a really tasty beer, but not necessarily true to style. First off, head retention was a little weak. Belgian yeast character not very prominent. In a blind taste test I would wager that more often than not people would pin it as a baltic/imperial porter than a belgian dubbel. Rich dark chocolate with heavy to medium roast malt with some lingering hop on the back end.