Bells Java Stout

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Stout
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

’07 Bottle: Viscous black pour with a medium-sized creamy, tan head. Massive coffee aroma...shocking! Unsweetened baker’s chocolate, dark malt and pipe tobacco notes present as well. Medium-full bodied, silky mouth feel. Flavor follows suit, yet it’s sweeter than I expected. This is a very satisfying stout and unlike any other that I’ve tasted. This would be a perfect brew to pair with a cigar.

A lot of coffee in this one. There is also caramel sweetness here to balance out the bitterness of the coffee/malt, but there is slightly too much for my bitterness loving tongue.

Bottle, batch 8151. Pours a thick, black, opaque body with brown head. Aroma consists of coffee and roasted malt. Strong roasted coffee flavors with some earthiness, ash, and cocoa. Finishes with a burnt malt and bitter coffee aftertaste. Smooth, full-bodied mouthfeel.

batch 7768 bottle. viscous black pour topped with a frothy tan head. it fades slowly and leaves a bit of lace work. ashy aroma is full of spent wet coffee grounds and earth. a mild astringent flavor of highly roasted malts is combined with wood, chocolate and coffee sourness. there’s something else in there as well... unfamiliar and indescribable. it’s not wood or roast but something vegetal almost stale. it’s not completely unpleasant... just distracting and strange. medium body with a creamy mouth feel from the carbonation.7/4/6/3/15=3.5

batch 8216. near black pour is almost opaque. it’s topped by a fluffy beige head which leaves some spotty lacing. the aroma is whole coffee beans, lacto, grain roastiness and wood. the flavor is woody and chocolate along with so much coffee that it is almost sour. the roasted grains are smoky and almost ashy. dry finish and enduring coffee aftertaste. light to medium bodied with a creamy texture. 7/4/8/3/15=3.7

Appearance: Pours a black body with a lush, though brief, light khaki-colored head. Smell: Lightly chocolatey aroma with a bit of molasses and the strong scent of stale coffee. There’s a vague fruitiness there as well which doesn’t really carry over into the taste. Taste: Sweet, rich chocolate flavor with some sugar laced coffee. Then a roastiness arises and begins to build alongside an earthy bitterness. Eventually, the taste goes to burnt malts and scorched coffee, long ago abandoned in a glass pot on the burner. Starts off good but goes downhill quick. Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Medium carbonation. Silky mouthfeel. Drinkability: Decent enough, but outshone by some of the other coffee stouts available.

Bottle. Oh that’s some serious coffee. Complete darkness with a thin dark tan head. The nose is all coffee and in a good way. The flavor again has a lot of that coffee shining through, but it’s a bit too much sour bitterness...something like you’d get from cheap coffee brewed too strongly. A good, very smooth beer, but that sourness felt out of place and kept it from being really great.

Bottle: Great aroma of coffee and roasted malt. Not much chocolate. Flavor same as aroma, but a touch too bitter. Pretty good. Will try again to see if better.

Bottle. Thick black pour with espresso like crema on top. Heavy coffee aroma. Looks and tastes like espresso.