Bells Rye Stout

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Stout
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

An opaque reddish amber with a small tan head. Coffee, crisp hop, and fresh pumpernickel aroma. The rye is noticable from a middle of the mouth astringent feel so you can detect the sharp nuttiness of the rye. This is most noticable in the aftertaste.

Found this one bottled (but not for long!) in St. Charles, Illinois. Very nice stout. Very dark brown pour with a dark tan head, nose of dark chocolate and canned cherries, quite mild with lots of bitter chocolate, espresso, and apricots. I like it!

Another review that I accidentally deleted and am having to rewrite.

Thanks to some awesome RateBeerian; over time I have forgotten which, for sending me this tantalizingly delicious beer!
Pours a foggy ink black body and a bountiful tall and resilient tan head. The aroma is bursting with chocolate and toffee malts. There was a note of rye bread there in the finish.. a kind of sunflower seed oily and nutty rendering. The flavor also brought coco and toffee, some date and brown sugars, walnut, a touch of vanilla, and a yeasty, beady tartness in the finish, almost lactic. The palate was chewy and gritty in some places… as Bell’s beers tend to have a decent amount of sediment.
Time has treated this increasingly rare beer rather nicely… I am a lucky man indeed!

12 oz. bottle courtesy Hellomynameis - another Bell’s from Zac! Large beige head develops from an opaque brown/black pour. I found this aroma hard to pin down. Some light roasted coffee, vanilla, and a grainy note that I’m going to assume is the rye. The aroma was overall subtle, yet pleasant. Very smooth with light carbonation, but a bit thin for a stout. Falvor is rich and malty sweet with hints of chocolate, roasted grain, and maybe some plum or other dark fruit. Just a little spicy bitterness prevents it from being sticky, although the finish is still somewhat sweet. Very pleasant and easy drinking stout.

Pours jet black with about a finger of dark tan head that reduces fairly quickly to absolutely nothing. After about a minute, once the head has disappeared, it looks like a glass of soy sauce. The nose is fairly muted for a Bells stout, with a bit of the spicy rye poking out behind dark roasted malt. I’m not sure that the combination of scents works too well for me. Light to medium-bodied and fairly thin, especially in comparison to other Bells stouts that I’ve sampled, the mouthfeel is silky-slick with a lightly lingering roasted finish. The flavor is a spicy (rye) roasted malt front with just a touch of hops poking out from behind. It’s a bit thin for my tastes, and I prefer both the Double Cream and Kalamazoo to this one. But a third placed stout from Bells still kicks the crap out of a lot of other breweries’ "best". A very drinkable and enjoyable stout.

Bottled sample. Almost black in colour with medium carbonation. Malty aroma with suggestions of coffee, milk chocolate, molasses and berry fruit. Flavor wise, the milk chocolate aspect becomes dominant, but some and spicy rye notes also become aparent along with other toasted grain nuances. Huge mouthfeel to this one. Very enjoyable, but perhaps a shade less forcefull than the Kalamazoo stout.

The first rye stout that I’ve had. Very interesting. The rye imparts a somewhat spicy and non-stout like flavour, but it seems to work well. It’s on the sweeter side of stouts as well.

2009 Bottle, Batch 9370 - Thanks mibirder! - Pours an opaque dk brown with a large tan head...aroma is roasty and woody, cocoa and plum, with a pronounced graininess...flavour is similar, sweet caramel malt, coffee, a great amount of rye taste without becoming one dimensional, finish is somehow a lingering char bitterness, but the mouthfeel is completely sweet...odd brew that I completely enjoyed!