Bells Batch 6000 Ale

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

#250! What a treat! Murky brown hue. Slight reddish tint to the edges. Ring of off white head. Sweet malt nose with notes of molassis, prunes, residual sugar, vanilla oakiness, and a slight bit of bitter chocolate. Full bodied but still with a lively effervescence and a nice alcohol warmth. It does have a long drying finish with bitter notes. Initial flavors of sugar and malts. Cloying sweetness. Followed by the alcohol whiskyish middle that warms the body and evolves from the sweet to the bitter. The chocolate and cocoa notes also appear somewhere around here. The finish is dry and bitter, but with a nice citrus and piney, berry undertone. The more I delve in, the more a cocoa note permeates. But it fades as quickly as it appears. Good cola note and a figgy character. Fantastic brew! This is one of my favorite styles and this is among the best I’ve had. But being from the Bell’s Brewery, it doesn’t surprise me in the least!

Bottle - thanks dmschefke. A deep auburn color with a finger of creamy beige head. Rich aroma is sweet with citrus, caramel, and toffee. The taste is smooth with aged hops in a citrusy blend with caramel and brown sugar. Elegantly smooth, yet a little bit of citrus hop bite and warming in the tail. I don’t know the exact age, but this has aged like a champ.

Rich malty aroma, earthy and mossy. Very dark brown with a thin head. Quite thick and alcoholic up front. Malty profile with strong tastes of raisins. Alcoholic aftertaste. Very good.

Pours with a thick tan head that lasts for an average amount of time. Dark, dark ruby brown color. Piney bubblegum scent. Thick and creamy mouthfeel. Quite a bit of alcohol present all the way through the flavor - kind of distracting. Otherwise, the flavor is of raisins sweet malt and piney hops. Nicely bitter aftertaste. I could have used less alcohol, but I enjoyed the rich sweet taste and feeling of the beer.

Had the barrel-aged version at the '04 Great Taste - Very sweet stuff.

Re-rate: 2/17/05. Draught. Alcoholic molasses aroma. Dark red body. Can see through it. Nice, off-white head. Beautiful, reddish, orange yellow color. Gets a perfect appearance score for the color alone. So good. 1/1/04: Bottle. Started my New Year’s Eve Celebration off with this one. Sweet, rich aroma with chocolate notes. Can also smell the substantial alcohol. Wonderfully complex aroma. Lots of particles visible in the deep, ruby red body. Has a small, yellowish-light tan head. Good lace. Large bubble carbonation. Alcohol is immediately evident in the mouthfeel. Very rich. Has a slight Mai Tai aftertaste, which stands to reason that it has dark rum and pineapple notes. Plums and molasses also come through. Smooth for a barley wine. Excellent. Ar 10, Ap 5, Fl 9, Pa 4, Ov 17.

Bottle from Slob that I shared with Tom and Daniel. After the horrendous 5000 I hurried Tom and Daniel along so that we could open this bottle. This was a rare and very good treat. Pours out a brown color with no head at all. Smell is heavy on raisins, sugar, malts, and a touch of hops. Taste is sweet and sticky and very smooth. No alcohol noted at all. One of my favorite beers of the evening. A damn nice bottle, and it seems to be at perfect drinking time right now. Great stuff.

Certainly a big complex brew. Eraser, resinous, tangy, a whole lotta hops, belches nicely, lots of sugars and so it’s taken the edge off of more subtle roast flavors and bittters, some creamy body, tastes young, some faint coffeee flavors. Just doesn’t come together. more cellar time?

Bottle Pours out a cloudy brown topped with a small head. Aroma was great lots of sweetness caramel, pit fruit and molases. Tast was just the same lots of sweetness. Very thick and rich just as you would hope a 6 year old BW to be. This was very nice. A big thanks to footbalm. I would love another.