Bells Rye Stout

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Stout
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

12oz bottle. Pours a deep brown, almost black body with some red tints. Finger-width, creamy, brown head that dissipates slowly and leaves a good amount of lacing. Aroma is slightly smokey with a light roast and milky chocolate. Some bready malts, toffee, and a hint of rye. Somewhat mild aroma, but nice. Flavor is similar and very well balanced. A mild roast and rich, milky chocolate up front before the rye malts become evident in the middle. Some toffee and nuts come in as well before this finishes with just a hint of dark fruits and barely a trace of sourness. Slowly dries with a subtle bitterness as a light smoke creeps in and leaves the palate with a roasty chocolate aftertaste that lasts for quite awhile. Medium body and very smooth, yet thick feeling with a creamy carbonation. Overall, a very nice, rounded stout. The rye adds a noticable difference as this stays silky, rich, and evenly roasted. Good one.

12 oz bottle, batch 9399. Dark brown with a light tan head, bits of lacing. Aroma bready malt, chocolate, roast, slight hints of smoke, a little rye. Rye comes through in the flavor more than the aroma. Flavor is rich, chocolate, rye, pumpernickel bread, some roast coffee, caramel, touches of dark fruit, some grainy malt, a bit of sweet dipping in toward the finish, spicy rye and a nice touch of bitterness to balance. Finishes fairly dry with a nice roundness from the spicy rye. A light drinkable stout with a nice balance of chocolate and rye.

This poured a dark brown with a beige head. Aroma was light chocolate, toffee, roasted malts and rye. Flavor was nice toasty malts sweet cholate and a bittering rye flavor. Nice stout just a bit thin.

Bottle. Dark brown to near black pour with a thick, dense beige head. Aroma is chocolate, rye, roasted malt, and light toffee. Taste is rye, roasted malt, light coffee, dark chocolate, and burnt bread. Body is medium with a thick, creamy carbonation. Ends with more roasted malts, chocolate, light coffee, and toffee. Rye is also present. More dark bread here as well.

On tap at Yogi’s. Pours deep auburn with an off-white head. Aroma is full of rye notes with an undertone of chocolate notes. Flavor has a nice undertone of rye spice with flavors of chocolate and coffee.

From a 12 oz. bottle at Grape & Gourmet’s Holiday Open House. Dark brown pour. Aroma of chocolate and toffee. Taste is also of chocolate with a generous amount of hops. Doesn’t work at all as a stout but is really somewhere between a brown ale and a hoppy porter. Not bad but a big let down since Kalamazoo and Expedition are such great stouts.

[Draft @ Capones] Murky brown with a small, light tan head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of roasted malts, some chocolate, rye, and a bit of metal. Taste was somewhat gritty, I assume it was all the yeast present in the glass, with some roasted grains, cocoa, rye, some smoke, and yeast.

Bottle, batch 9399. Pours a dark mahogany color that shows slightly translucent at the outer edges. A moderate, spongy head of khaki colored foam dissipates quickly, settling to a bubbly film and leaving scant traces of lacing on the glass. The nose is very mild, but nice, showing notes of dry, chalky cocoa, fresh rye grain, dry caramel, and hints of earth and smoke. Flavors are very well crafted and easy going, showing the same dry, dark caramel and cocoa, mild rye and toasty grain, with traces of pumpernickel and dry, slightly chalky yeast. Peppery, spcy hops come through on the finish. The body is medium-plus in stature, dry, yeasty, and easy going. Overall, I enjoyed this quite a bit. Very solid stout.