Bells Batch 6000 Ale

Formerly brewed at Bells Brewery
Style: Barley Wine
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Sampled from bottle. Pours a murky, chocolate bar brown with a thin, light-tan scattered head and nice lacing. Careful with the pour because of sediment. Aroma is musty with cedar, tart citrus and prunes. Flavor is balanced for the style (but still sweet) with chocolate, molassas, spicy/piney hops and yeast. Somewhat herbal/medicinal. Full-bodied, well-carbonated and very drinkable for the style. Thanks to Feloniousmonk.

I’ve been waiting to try this one. Pours a mostly clear mahogany color with a small quickly dissipating head. The aroma is sweet caramel-ish malts intertwined with dark sweet fruits (dates). Very aromatic. Flavor is lightly sweet with dark fruit, coco, toffee, and pine hops towards the finish. Very rich and flavorful. Medium body, slick with a dryish finish. Glad I still have a few bottles of this in the cellar.

The pour gives a brown colored beer with not much of a head. The beer seducts me with its aroma of hops, caramel and mild roasted malt. After being seducted flavors of hops, roasted and smoked malt and caramel make me fall in love. The body is silky and thick with a low carbonation level. This new love of mine has a very interesting flavor profile and complexity. Thanks to JPDIPSO !

12oz. bottle thanks to Sully. Hazy brown color with a small tan head. Beautiful, sweet malty, caramel aroma with a bit of hops. Flavor was not as sweet as expected. Still tons of malt and caramel goodness, but more of a hop presence in the taste than the aroma. Delicious beer!

Huge thanks to BBB63 for this.murky dark brown like the in new orleans over the ninth ward right now. a ring of light brown head. figgy raisin and alcohol aroma. strong green raisin in the nose also. taste is milk chocolate with a strong alcohol bite with a strong hot finish of caramel. hops grape, cinnamon, and a lot of sweetness all over the place from first taste to finish. wow, this holds up well. very close if not better than old numbskull, i’ll have to check my rating of that. but this is an amazing balance of flavors.

Bottle. Very rich and sweet fruity nose-like fresh baked raisin bread. Taste-the taste is in direct opposition to the nose. After savoring the nose, I expected this to be overly sweet, but it isn’t. Bitter and relatively dry for a barleywine. Very nice. Has a good amount of bitter that is rounded out with some low key sweetness. Notes of barn and honey really come out.

Rating # 400!!! Pours cloudy brown, with a tan/brown head. Aromas are malt, dark fruit, raisins, brown sugar, and yeast. Flavors are sugar, caramel, toffee, sweet malt and raisins. Body is heavy.

From my notes, based on a serving from the tap at Crane Alley, Urbana, IL, in late April 2005. Amazing the manager was able to procure this one. Onto the beer...Batch600 has to rank among the finest barleywines ever made. This richness, caramel, toffee, vanilla, rum, raisan, (I could keep going) make for an incredibly complex beer. I wish I had bottles to age for 10-15 years -- my unborn children shouldn’t be denied this pleasure. Rerate based on the lastest (and last) tapping at Crane Alley yesterday. Enjoyed in the company of many good people from the Champaign Beer Club. The color of the pour is darker than I remember earlier, a deep mahogany. The notes of orange peel and Grand Marnier are a a bit stronger. Given that this was poured out of the keg, its appears to have aged slower than the bottle. The hops notes are still strong, and it may be at or near its peak drinkablity right now (again, based on the keg). Great stuff. Overall is going up 1 as is appearance.