Bells Bourbon Barrel Double Cream/Expedition Stout

Dark black body with a small creamy brown head. Sweet caramel, molassas and light oak aroma. Sweet molassas, chocolate, caramel flavor with light oak and vanilla. I very much enjoyed this brew.

Dark black body with a small creamy brown head. Sweet caramel, molassas and light oak aroma. Sweet molassas, chocolate, caramel flavor with light oak and vanilla. Smooth creamy mouthfeel with a full body and medium low carbonation.

Sample at the Bell’s tasting at Brews Cafe on 3/6/08: This beer pours a matte black color with a medium thin light brown head with decent retention. Small patches of lacing on the glass. Aroma of coffee liqueur, bourbon and toasted malt. Rich, chewy body with loads of roasted malt and bittersweet chocolate flavor, as well as bourbon and plum. The finish is roasty and sweet at first with mild alcohol and coffee in the aftertaste. Very enjoyable, and a close second to the Bourbon Barrel Java Stout at this event.

On tap at the Bell’s dinner at Brews. Dark beer with a thin brown head that shank to a whispy film pretty quickly. The bourbon barrel flavors are much more subtle in this mix then in the Third Coast Old Ale or the Java. The bourbon is still a strong flavor, with oak, vanilla, coffee, some bitter chocolate and some dark juicey fruits as it warms. This beer comes with a lot of hype and while it didn’t rock my world, for a beer with so many stong flavors everything balances and blends with finesse. This is a great example of how a barrel and two beers can be combined to make an excellent drink.

#500. Draft. Pours pitch black with a surprisingly sturdy dark brown head. As soon as I smelled this I knew my hopes were not going to be let down. Super rich, thick chocolate aroma complimented (not overpowered) by a strong vanilla, oaky bourbon note that melds nicely. Coffee, dark fruits, marshmallow are also noted, all being weaved together nicely. This smells remarkably similar to Goose Island’s BCS, one of my favorite beers. Thankfully this tastes as good as it smells. Rich, full bodied and sticky with that super roasty flavor of Expedition being in the forefront, though calmed from its time in the barrel and the addition of the bourbon and vanilla flavors. I want to say this has a chocolate flavor and aftertaste but really it is more like fudge. Again, the bourbon is a strong component in the flavor but it doesn’t overpower. The body is full and chewy though obviously a little less than the regular Expedition. I taste a lot more Expedition than Double Cream. I wondered why they even bothered to blend the two because an oak-aged Expedition sounded better to me but I think the DC cuts out some of the intense roastiness and bitterness of the Expedition and lends a nice drinkability to this. This is certainly one of the best barrel aged beers I’ve tried, I might like the BCS just a tad more though this is certainly less hot and more drinkable. Either way this is just spectacular.