Bells Batch 7000 Ale

Formerly brewed at Bells Brewery
Style: Imperial Stout
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Fresh bottle, 2005: WIth a gloriously colored and deeply saturated bronze head, the aroma has faint chocolate, more pronounced caramel and bourbon, as well as some sweet maple (barley-wine-ish). Flavorwise it’s more along the traditional imperial stout characteristics - smoky, dry, starchy, sharp and young... the dryness isn’t something I really enjoy, and the dry malted milk balls and wood tend to ruin the more rich chocolate and smoky notes underneath. Too young, too hot.
8/5/7/2/14 = 3.6

December 2007, on tap at Eccentric Cafe: Amazingly rich and decadent, sticky, thick, succulent. The booziness has dropped off, and you’re left with a sticky, gooey, caramely, resinous roast-heavy stout. This jumped from mid-3 range to mid-4 range with two years are. Awesome stout, and pretty sweet how you could forecast this happening based on how hot the young bottles were.
8/5/9/4/17 = 4.3

Black Coloring with Espresso Head. Nice Complex Aroma..Predominatly Sour..Rich Malt and Roasts. You Can Smell the Warming You’re About to Experience. Heavy Hit of Flavor! Heavy Creamy and Dry Mouthfeel. Coffee Roasts, Dark Chocolate/Bakers with Dry Hops Giving it a Freshly Baked Taste. Sweet Chocolate and Malt Still Come up on The Bottom of Your Tongue. The Kind of Flavor you HOPE you Get in an Imperial Stout.

Bottle. Pitch black, really big dark tan head. Surprisingly muted aroma - a bit of alcohol and syrupy baker’s chocolate, but even as it warmed, it remained pretty disappointing. The aroma letdown was short lived however as the taste was fantastic. The mouthfeel was thick and there was an abundance of hops and chocolate. The finish was all dry roast and more hops. Incredible taste, having this and the Kalamazoo in the same night just put Bell’s on my favourite brewers list. Big thanks to Captain Cougar for these fine beers.

Bottle Rating #700 Pours a thick and viscous deep black with a tall and very thick creamy tan head. Sweet heavy dark roasted aroma with molassas and notes of purple grapes and not much coffee. Flaver is very rich dark roasted with plenty of bittering. Extremely smooth, silky but light at the same time. Almost pillowy. Carbonation is fine and soft. Lots of lingering bitternes but about right for the strong dark maltiness. A wonderfull example of the style and beers like this make me wish I lived closer to the prime beer spots in the contry. A big Thank You to OhioDad for this one.

Strong Alcoholic aroma with hints of sweetness. Dark brown with redish hues and a light tan head. Taste of alcohol is predominent with some sourness. Thin bodied with lots of carbonation and again a strong alcoholic presence. Too much of an alochol taste hides most of the other flavors, which would have made this more enjoyable.

I don’t even know what to call this thing. It’s too hoppy to be an impy stout, but it’s too creamy and malty to be a double IPA. Any ideas? It’s pretty great, whatever it is. I’m glad I got to try this one, because I can’t get Bell’s where I live and this is "only brewed once." Here’s to 7000 more. Cheers.

Pours real dark, with a decent light brown head. malt and chocholate notes rise up to the nose. Thick rich mouthfeel, almost like drinking chocolate syrup with hops and a touch of citrus, coffee, and alcohol. Very rich and flavorful.

Deepest burgundy-brown without the opacity of an expedition, but producing an initially fair head that leaves interesting lacing for its strength. Immensely hoppy nose explodes with grapefruit, mint and citrus aromatics, but the malt overlay is just as massive. Cakey feel is intensified by the floury, chocolatey and coffee-like notes in abundance. The roastiness is powerful all along. Very bitter in mouth, that’s usually not my type, but it has qualities otherwise, for one, its dominant orangey citric character somehow manages to keep the acidity level at a low. The coffee/cocoa malt combo seems to simply accept and bend under hop pressure rather than being forced to and I guess it makes the difference. Medium-full bodied, heavily roasty, sensible carbonation, but without the silkiness of the greats at this point, maybe as the hops mellow – it is not overly astringent, but the components extravagance can’t help but giving it a rapacious feel on the palate. Additionally, that hop action takes a lot away from the malt fruitiness underlying. While it may not have been made to be balanced, the final product certainly seems to be striving for it. Lots of hops for lots of malt. I would trade it for an expedition in a blink, but I can see how some people may find it a regal.