Bells Batch 7000 Ale

Poured black with a brown head. Aroma of chocolate and roasted coffee. Flavor of roasted malt with hints of chocolate and molasses.

First rating in forever! Bottle courtesy of pantanap (thanks Kan!). Pours dark black with slim tan head, thanks to some force on my end. The aroma is lovely, tons of dark fruits and chocolate. Plenty of roastiness as well. And the taste...just wow. Everything I like about Expedition basically. Explosion of dark bitter chocolate, burnt roast, and slight plumminess. One thing I’ve been amazed at with both this and Batch 6000 is just how unreal the texture is despite the years of aging. Wonderfully slick and full on the tongue. Finish is bitter and roasty. Excellent, spectacular, etc. Can’t wait for Batch 9000!

Bottles courtesy of retorp. Poured a dark black, glass staining black. Huge roast malt nose. Some liquorice, coffee and dark fruit tartness. Boozey! Oily, thick mouthfeel. Flavors were bitter, charred malt, cocoa and some slight plum. Alchoholic and very warming! Excellent beer. Aged well.

12 oz bottle. Pours black with brown head. I was quite drunk by the time I got to this one but here goes. Aroma of chocolate with a hint of alcohol. The alcohol was noticeable in this one but the other flavors complemented it nicely. Taste was ’roasty’ and somewhat ’fruity’ at the same time. Very good. I’m looking for some of these.

Bottle thanks to northernbrews!
Dark brown, slight tan head that goes to a ring. Sweet nose strongly of bitter dark chocolate, also licorice, woody alcohol, some sugar, and berries. Incredibly rich mouth of chocolate and oat with minor bitter roast notes and very little alcohol. Monstrous body, but so smooth, loads of dark chocolate into the long, coating finish, and then some lighter sweet fruit notes emerge. This is fantastic right now. A master class impy, and perhaps more impressively, an easy one to throw back. Founders, eat your heart out.

Sample at O-town throwdown ’09 Last sample of this amazing tasting and what a way to end it. Pours deep black with beige head and nice viscous golden lacing. Aroma lots and lots of dark fruits with a good boozy scent that dissipates together with roasted malts and chocolate. Taste, boozy boozy, this is one juggernaut beer goodness. Plenty of dark fruits, malty with touch of sweet licorice and chocolate.

Bottle. Aroma of huge anise, quickly backed up by sweet coffee, sweet and bitter chocolate, ranging from tootsie roll to 85% cacao, big toffee, very earthy, woodsy nuttiness. Flavor quite decadent with a notable but perfectly delectable level of booze, highlighted by molasses, the toffee and those nutty, earthy notes (I very viscerally feel like I’m outside as I drink and smell this) and really comes full circle to a very minty, liccorice-y anise. Despite all the decadence, finishes medium-sweet, medium-dry with a big burst of chocolate, and with a notable level of bitterness even at this late date. Such a monster, yet I would still ascribe to it the words intricate and delicate. Best of all worlds for me. I wish this was called, well, anything that didn’t indicate it was brewed 2000 batches ago never to be brewed again.

Bottle thanks to mreusch. Pours black with a teensy tiny tan head. Aroma of alcohol, chocolate, and roasted malt. Definitely on the boozy side. Flavor of more rich sweet malt and molasses. It wasn’t so boozy at first, but then it did start to get a bit heavy. Very rich and thick, not really syrupy though. Not my kind of imperial stout, as it is a little too alcohol-rich for my tastes. 7/4/7/4/15 (3.7/5)