Bells Black Note Stout

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Imperial Stout
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Serve in Snifter

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Hand bottle shared by Sparky27 via STFun...once again...THANKS!!! Aromatic brew with notes of vanilla, bourbon, oak, cocoa, and brown sugar. Caramel and molasses accompany similar vanilla, oak, and chocolate fudge flavors. The deep ebony brew with mahogany edges created no head to speak of and zero lacing; a product of hand bottling, perhaps. Extremely creamy and luxurious...really, an amazing beer. Wow!!!

Courtesy Gunhaver. Pours black with a small tan head. Aroma is loaded with roasted malt, caramel, chocolate, bourbon, vanilla, licorice, and oak. Taste is the same as aroma. Medium full mouthfeel with smooth alcohol. A damn fine brew.

Big thanks to Gunhaver for sharing this. It pours deep dark fudgy liquid brownie with no head. The aroma is as fudgy as the appearance moving into caramel coated oak planks, some vanilla and soft booze. The taste is velvety across the palate with solid notes of oak. It then begins to pick up creamy caramel and some burnt maltiness to balance it out a bit. Actually there are tons flavors here creating a very pleasing balance with mild bourbon booze notes picking up now and again. Rich and yummy.

Rating #300. Handbottle courtesy of Gunhaver. Poured pitch black with a tiny brown head. Amazing nose filled with roasted malt, milk chocolate, bourbon, wood, and touches of vanilla. Full bodied and chewy with a smooth silky mouthfeel. Very similar to chocolate milk. The flavor is near perfect as far as imperial stouts go, absolutely amazing! Medium sweetness, slightly vinous with bright caramel, milk chocolate, bourbon, and vanilla notes. I can’t get over how creamy or milk-like this is. I think the key to this beer is balance all the components I love to see in impy stouts were there while none of them were ever brash or overpowering.

Hand bottle provided by gunhaver. A: Pours a very dark shade of flat black, no head. S: Wonderful earthy aromas up front. Lots of wood, like fresh cut trees in a forest. There were hints of char, bourbon, vanilla and dark fruit. T: Barrel flavors right from the start. Fresh oak, vanilla, and bourbon. Chocolate and dark fruit are there along with light cream and a touch of ash. M: Full bodied, low carbonation D: Awesome. Really tasty complex beer. Not the most tasty of the stouts we tasted tonight, but was the most complex.

Bottle courtesy of gunhaver! This started off a retarded tasting. Pours black. Nose is huge bourbon, whiskey, tons of earthy woods, hot booze, fig and prune, mild coffee, vanilla and liquorice. Flavor is huge roast, hot booze, caramel, toffee, mollasses, cherries, prunes bourbon, intense wood. AMAZING!

Handbottle, courtesy StFun. Pours flat, dark brown, reddish haze. Nose is tons of bourbon, lots of roast, big heat, dark, dry wood. Flavor is STUUUUUUUPID. Tons of roast, chocolate, big bourbon, huge dry coffee, extremely wonderful finish full of dry ashy roast and wonderfulness. Probably the best, most complex stupid beer I’ve ever tasted. It just doesn’t get better than this. PERIOD.

Without doubt, the best bourbon flavored beer I have ever had,aroma carried all the best traits of the best of stouts,the dark roasted malts,rich creamy chocolate,almost bosco like, and the best bourbon flavors ever,all that oak and vanilla flavoring,alcohol was just on the fringe of being noticeable. I see no room for improvement. I pray I get this again before going to that big brewpub in the sky

From a handbottled @ home.
[ Trade by Bobby91w ]. Clear dark dark dark black color with small, fizzy, fair lacing, fully diminishing, off-white head. Aroma is heavy malty, roasted, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, bourbon, cask wood, vanilla, alcohol. Flavor is heavy sweet and bitter with a long long long duration. Body is full, texture is creamuy and oily - sticky, carbonation is flat. [20090429]

This is an absolutely excellent beer available only seasonally. Excellent around the winter holidays. Bring a flourless chocolate cake and plenty of double creme stout - and you have a delicious combo platter for desert. Really! Dark beer drinkers will LOVE this beer. Caution: The contrast is too great with a sweeter frosted double chocolate cake. Tried that and failed. Would have been better off with just the dcs.