Bells Expedition Stout

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Imperial Stout
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Pours jet black with a small brown head that sticks around for a while. The aroma is dominated by chocolate and coffee notes. Taste is pretty complex with the strongest notes being bitter dark chocolate and coffee. Alcohol is masked pretty well. GREAT STOUT.

sweet, very rich, dry, a bit much. I actually had no urge to drink after this beer. Switched to water.

355ml: Pours pitch black, deep and marshmallow like brown head on top. Great, complex aroma of black licorice, molasses, chocolate, sour cherries.. seriously brings to mind a black forest cake, right down to the spongy cake. Not sure how an aroma can do that but it is. Flavour is a wallop, amazing blend of that black forest cake with the licorice and molasses promised in the aroma, espresso, all wrapped around a thick, viscous and oily mouthfeel. What a terrific beer, just amazing stuff.

Wow...Pours a midnight black with a thin tan head; motor oil in a glass. Aromas of floral hops, chocolate and dark roasted malts. The taste is fairly bitter with floral hops, dark chocolate and noticable alcohol. A great beer to sip in front of the fire after a long winters day. One of my favorite"big" stouts of all time.

How did it come to this? Where to begin... this is, to date, the best stout I have tasted. Caramel and chocolate notes. Floral hops. Big, dark and creamy! Not at all simple... there is something dark and rich here that defies words. Poured like motor oil with an obnoxiously brown head. Absolutely beautiful. Sticks to the sides of the glass like a beautiful oil slick. Creamy and thick mouthfeel. Incredible flavor. A very complex, rich and beautiful stout.

Pours a nice molten black with a minimal amount of tan head. Very little lacing as a result. Great aroma with great roasted and smokey tones. Incredibly smooth on the palate. Complex character that has hints of chocolate, very little bitterness, and doesn’t leave your mouth feeling dry as saw dust like a lot of other heavy, imperial stouts. Definitely a beer to sit back and savor.

(br-btl cm-lbl, Comstock MI, 6 pack, 10.5%)

opq-bk, th-br-hd, ^full-body, low-co2.

aroma: ^rch ^wrm ^mlsss brnt-crrnt dk-mlt-syrp §sweet-silage.

T1 drk rch thck sweet-rsty-chclt-malt.
T2 chclt sweet-drk-fruit §sweet-chrcl-pills §leafy-hops.
T3 sweet-chrcl crml-§brnt-sgr-syrup §wood-astrgt(tannin?).

incredible, intense, possibly the thickest densest beer i’ve ever had at 350 ratings, like a sweet chrcl malt shake, co2 is there but it can’t escape the density, the thickness and sweetness are a bit cloying alone but make an awesome dessert beer.

Well, I had to get around to rating it sooner or later. The beer pours a beautiful deep black color with a nice big darker tan almost reddish brown head. The beer leaves a little lace on the glass but really it leaves more "sheets" than anything. The aroma is dark chocolate, plenty of floral hops, some toast, some raisins, plenty of earthy and woody notes, there is some ash and some licorice in there as well. The flavor is woody, like new wood. I wouldn’t have been surprised if I found out that this was aged in wood. The beer is very bitter with lots of fruity hop notes and is all around insanely roasty. All of this is comprised of or complimented by flavors of chocolate, licorice, burnt toast, and raw coco. A few things strike me as special and unique about this beer first off it seems to be balanced, but not between bitter and sweet flavors as there isn’t a lot of sweetness here, but there is a lot of fruitiness seemingly from the hops, which is kind of wild because this seems to balance the bitterness both from the roasty malt and the copious hop content. The palate is full and big without being syrupy, this beer is a kind of feat. I don’t mind syrupy or sweet imperial stouts but this is clearly better than almost if not every single one of those.