Bells Rye Stout

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Stout
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Pours a deep dark brown mahogony black, topped by about an inch of deep tan foam. Good head retention and lacing. I can’t get over this aroma - to me it smells like Raisin Bran cereal still in the box - grain, bran, and those tiny tartly dried and subsequently sugared raisins. Dry rye and bitter cherry pit flavor combines with a bittersweet chocolate and a roasted grain flavor. Perfect. Medium body, prevelant and silky smooth carbonation

A mild and very drinkable stout, even as a session ale. Flavor of roasty cacamel, chocolate, and some coffee (these tastes are very mild though).

Very different. The rye really comes out in the aroma and flavor. The rye aroma smelled sweet most of the time, but occassionally had a kind of pooh aroma. The flavor was spicy and slightly bitter with a solid malt backbone. Full flavored, full feeling stout. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this stout. Pretty neat idea though.

light, grainy aroma of dark malt on a brown/black body with a smallish tan head. extraordinarily smooth body. definitely some spiciness to go with the typical coffee flavors; sweet malty backbone with a great balance of some bitterness. smooth tasty finish with a hint spices.

I love rye beer, but I couldn’t find much special about this stout. It was very smooth, a bit watery, but not tremendously flavorful. The unique malty quality that rye frequently imparts to beers brewed with it was not detectable to me within this beer. Not much to object to, but nothing to get excited about either. My bottle was dated "7235," which I’m guessing means that it is a well-mellowed bottle. Appearance was dark and beer was somewhat un-carbonated, unlike the Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout and Java Stout. Aroma and flavor were very minimal and not very roasty at all, again unlike its other Bell’s stout stablemates. I felt a bit let-down by the lack of flavor in this beer; much the same way I felt the last time I had a Guinness. Mouthfeel was a bit watery. Not a bad beer, but nothing to get excited about.

bottle. pours brown with a fizzy tan head. well carbonated. notes of macadamia nuts, chocolate, coffee, cocoa, rye, bread. Nice roasty, cocoa rye flavor. medium body. great beer. bells knows how to do stouts!

A relaxed stout with long roastiness and a warm and subtle hint of spice. So elusive, though - licorice? carraway?. Anyway, it’s a great end of the day, relax with good conversation brew.

12oz bottle. Pours dark brown in color with thin white head. Aroma roasted malt and coffee. Taste roasted coffee, chocolate and caramel with bitter finish.