Bells Java Stout

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Stout
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

(Bottle via trade with <A HREF=http://www.ratebeer.com/ViewUser.asp?UserID=3 target=blank>shigadeyo, thanks Craig!) Add some cream and sugar to one of these and you’re good to go for the morning...Pours very dark brown with some ruby highlights. Four fingers of creamy, slightly rocky tan head. Rather unpleasant aroma is of old burnt coffee, little bit of chocolate in there as well as hints of something vegetal. Mouthfeel is nice, smooth, sort of creamy and lightly oily. Flavor is whoa, look out!...very strong black coffee, roasty and slightly burnt - not for the faint of heart. There is some chocolate in there as well I suppose but pretty well hidden by the coffee. Vegetal taste emerges a little as it warms. Lingering bitter coffee aftertaste.

Pours a thick, viscous black with a dense thin mocha-colored head. Aromas of coffee, roasted malt, dark fruits, and chocolate are densly packed in this opulent nose. The flavor is thick and rich with dark roasted malts, coffee, chocolate and toffee. The body is thick and sweet--almost bordering on a lactic quality--without much carbonation and abounds with roasted malt bitterness that coats the mouth and lasts well into the finish. An excellent, serious coffee beer.

bottle. opaque, little carbonation. smells and tastes of unbrewed beans. Dark roasted flavors. loose lacing on the glass. probably won’t try this again.

I, like Gregis, really don’t see how this beer can be so highly rated or popular. When I think of a good coffee or java stout, I think of Beer Geek Breakfast or Speedway Stout. For me, this was really like drinking day old Folgers on the rocks. Very bitter, burt coffee aroma with a very metallic presence. Flavor is of burnt coffee, tobacco, and finishes with a "the caffeine in this drink isn’t worth the effort to finish it" that I often experience when drinking my coffee after it has gotten cold and bitter. Oh well, I’m not a fan, but it appears than many are...

Poured a pitch black color from a 12 oz bottle. Aroma was really strong and same as the taste, which was of coffee and roasted malt. This is a really good stout.

It’s pitch black with a creamy, light brown head. The aroma has clear notes of roasted coffee and roasted malt, and it’s slightly burnt and yet smooth. The flavour has notes of roasted malt, dark roasted coffee, light sweetness, a hint of dried fruits and even if there are slightly burnt notes in the entire flavour, it also has a smoothness. The balance is has it weight in unusual parts of the flavour - but the balance clearly is there. Thank you Linus_Stick for this coffee-ish beer! 2340

Bottle courtesy of Plucier: Poured a deep pitch-black color stout with a nice big foamy head with great retention and great lacing. Aroma of medium dry coffee is well balance with roasted malt and light subtle dark chocolate. Taste of nice coffee without being too overpowering and some nice medium bitter roasted malt. Texture is quite creamy which is appreciated with a quite full body and some adequate carbonation. I thought this was a very well done and well balance example of a coffee stout.

12 oz bottle. Wow is this stuff good, way better then the Expedition in my eyes. Poured a viscous dark black with an inch of creamy light brown head, from a rather vigorous pour, into my Lucifer snifter. The head settled down to a small lacing that remained on the edges of my snifter the entire time. Aroma was awesome, Hersheys chocolate syrup, not straight from the bottle but the stuff that would remain on the bottom of your glass if you put to much in, coffee and upon warming some vanilla and even a sligh essence of wood. Flavor was fantastic lots of chocolate with hints of coffee. Mouthfeel was full but a little to astringent on the back of my throat where I wouldof liked it to be a little creamier for being only 7.5%. This is one fantastic beer however and I will grab some more of this next time I see some.