Bells Batch 6000 Ale

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

Thanks to Alex (Masterski) for breaking out this old-timer. Poured from 12oz bottle into ’08 FoBAB glass. A - Pours a chocolate brown with a tan head. A thin hint of a cap remains but otherwise, it’s all beer and nothing much. S - Chocolate-covered cherries, dark fruit, cinnamon. T - Milk chocolate, sweet cherries, subtle alcohol. This has cellared exceptionally well...it’s awesome and extremely complex. A creamy finish with a slight bitter finish. M - Medium bodied, light carbonation, smooth, and rich. D - I’m impressed by this one after not exactly knowing what to expect. I would really like to score some of this stuff but I don’t think it’s gonna happen considering that this one came out back in 2003. A winner, no doubt about it.

@Moosetoberfest Gathering Thanks –12oz bottle-pours no head and dark hazy amber color. Aroma is sweet medium malt, fruit-pineapple. Taste is sweet medium malt, fruit-pineapple, secondary earthy, acidic.

TAP @ The Happy Gnome, 11.14.09 (retained from a recent Bell’s food-beer pairing). Mahogany/copper pour, khaki head. Monster aroma - caramel, fig, hops. Taste is caramel, brown sugar, fig, toffee, molasses, and coffee. I feel fortunate to try this very rare (at this point) beer, and I can tell it’s a great barleywine, but it’s just not my style.

Never had this fresh but it seemed to have aged beautifully. Sweet aroma, caramel, fruit and a faint hop bitterness. A bit of molasses and alcohol too. Flavor is sweet and smooth, dark fruit, brown sugar, honey, molasses, a little woodyness and bourbony syrup. Delicious.

Bottle shared by yobdog. Pours brown with a small white head. Has a caramel, vanilla smell to it. Has a caramel brown sugar and malt in the taste. Great BW

12 oz bottle shared by yobdoog at Moosetoberfest, thanks Trevor(yet another new rating for me to keep me ahead of you!!). Poured a thick syrupy brown with a super small foamy beige head. Aroma is nice with notes of caramel, vanilla, toffee, waxy honey and a hint of cloves as well. Medium bodied that was syrupy and sticky with soft carbonation. Flavor of caramel, wax, amber malts, toffee, raisin and slight cardboard from some oxidation. This is one very very nice beer that is aging gracefully unlike the corpse of Anna Nichole Smith.

Bottle, courtesy northernbrews. The pour yields an extremely dark, coppery-mauve colored body, lightly hazy in consistency, with a small, frothy, khaki colored head. Dense sheeting stains the glass a bit, leaving behind some slow micro-spot drips. The aroma is ultra rich and malty, yet equally earthen and roasty. Notes of burnt caramel and singed toffee play off of deep, smoky molasses and stewed figs, with a good amount of bitter barley roast and hints of raw cacao. Flavors are just as deep and complex, torched caramel and toffee backed up with sweet fig, all colliding head on with bitter, earthy hops and staunch roast. Shades of molasses and marzipan come through, as do hints of just-burnt toast and even some torched marshmallow. The palate is full, coating the mouth substantially, finishing a little hot from the booze and massively bitter, despite it’s advanced age. Even at six years of age, this beer is rocking. Great barleywine.

Awesome flavor. Lots of caramel with a perfect balance. Knowing how old this is made me appreciate it even more