R.J. Rockers Bell Ringer Ale

Brewed by R.J. Rockers Brewing Co.
Style: American Strong Ale
Spartanburg, South Carolina USA

sample on 6/14/09. pours a dark golden with white head. a basic strong golden ale. feels like a suped up Pale Ale. med body with avg carbonation. some bitterness, some malts... but overall falls short of everything. at 8.5%, I would not want to waste an evening on this.

12 oz bottle: Murky amber pour with a whimpy tan head. The nose is mostly unassuming, offering little in the way of either hops or malt. Strange for such a big beer. As it comes to room temp - some hops come out, but very faint. Very strange indeed. The body is a medium build with a nice bitterness to balance the modest caramel sweetness. Nothing about this says 8.5% and maybe that is why they call it Bell Ringer. This drinks almost like a session APA.

Bottle. Pours a dark amber color with a small off-white head. Aroma of malt and caramel. Taste of malt, toffee and light hops. Has a crisp, light bitter finish

Hazy amber pour with a small white head. The aroma was up front garbage malts and a caramel. Flavor had more garbage, plums, raisins, caramel, and rice pudding. Boozy finish but it wasn’t too overwhelming.

THOUGHTS: It was OK, but not great. Actually not even OK. This was a real downer. The other one’s in the variety pack weren’t great, but they were well made and fine for their styles, but his is a disappointing strong ale. It did get a little better as it warmed, but not much. With every sip, I hoped it would be my last. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a slightly cloudy, medium amber with a small, off-white head that mostly diminished and left fair lacing. The aroma was light grain and cereal, light orangey citrus hops, moderate to heavy resinous hops, moderate doughy and sweaty yeast, and candy. There was also cologne or hairspray aroma when it was still rather chilled. The initial flavor was sweet and slightly acidic, while the finish was very sweet, slightly acidic, extremely bitter and slightly sour with an average to long duration. There was caramel malt, candy metallic hops, orangey citrus hops, alcohol, slight Cap’n Crunch, grainy cereal, then something like a solvent, hairspray or shampoo thing going on (and before you speculate, it was a beer-clean glass) and then more orange. The medium to full body was sort of creamy with fairly fizzy carbonation and a metallic, moderately astringent and lightly to moderately alcoholic finish.

12oz bottle, from Charleston Beer Exchange. Pours transparent amber, topped with a medium-sized white head. Aroma exhibits nice balance between toffee, caramel, and grapefruity hops. Flavor begins with caramel, which is joined by honey, grapefruit and dirt. Finishes with a bit too much toffee sweetness, with some hops lingering on the palate. This just didn’t work for me.

Bottle. Big caramel and sweaty feet nose. Hazy amber-copper with a yellow-tinged, spotty head. Taste is big toffee and medium caramel, bittersweet, doesn’t really ever dry out, just a long string of Sugar Daddy and Charleston Chew. Hops are light and nopt the problem here (‘unclean’ like the pale), medium sugary body, stale aftertaste.

bottle from shp555 and my first from the southern of the carolinas... hazy to almost cloudy pour... amber with a frothy toasted almond colored head which shows great retention. the aroma is very bock-y?... sweet, malty, fruit?/orange/red apples, caramel and earthy pine...rosemary. the palate is a touch on the sweet side but it is helped/cleaned up by the alcohol and hop dryness... for the most part the flavor is just like the aroma along with a spicy sting on the finish. it is medium bodied with a creamy smooth mouth feel. i’m not really sure of what it is supposed to be but it’s good. perhaps that is why it is so easy to drink! 7/3/7/4/14/3.5