Bells Christmas Ale

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Scotch Ale
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Serve in Thistle

TAP. Caramel and bread. Decent holiday offering

10/13/11 Bottle Date; Sampled February 2012
A steady pour into my Lost Abbey Teku glass produces a two-finger thick, pale amber tinged, tan colored head that leaves some nice lacing on the sides of my glass. The beer is a dark amber color that shows a brilliantly clear, bright amber color when held up to the light. The aroma has a fruitiness to it up front that speaks of hop character; berry notes along with a bright citrus character that reminds me of tangerine zest, big-floral concentrated orange flower nectar, sweet floral peach, and, a touch more tropical in character, big notes of lychee. The bright hop character is backed by some earthy, toasted whole grain , touches of sweet tea, caramelized crystal malt character, but these play a clearly supporting role to the dominant, brightly fruity hop character. The nose of this beer is quite promising, I was not expecting much from this beer, but based on the nose I can’t wait to take a sip.

A light medium body up front is coupled with a biting, though not overly aggressive bitterness; as the beer moves across the palate it picks up a really distinct fruitiness, it is not purely citrus, not really tropical, but almost musky in its fruity brightness. The hop fruit character is made up of super ripe tangelo zest, definite lychee, some musky tropical fruit notes, and just a really floral, concentrated fruit character of some sort. The bitter hop bite in the finish couples with a hint of pine notes and some herbal, spicy hop character that lingers a bit on the palate; this last is brought out by the prickly carbonic character that is contributed by the carbonation. A caramelized malt character accentuates the fruit character and there is a touch of biscuit and cracker like malt character towards the finish, but this is really a hop dominated beer. The body has enough texture to carry the hops, but this is still eminently quaffable, I could easily drink a couple bottles of this in an evening and be quite happy.

This is a really nice beer, it is sort of like a malty, definitely hoppy Pale Ale; really though the hop character is quite dominant; it makes me think of a smaller version of Sierra Nevada Celebration. The distinctive hop fruitiness is also really interesting here as well. The reviews on this beer are quite interesting, I am not sure why people think this is a Scotch / Scottish ale; this is definitely a hoppy Pale ale of some sort & it is really interesting how many people missed the dominant hop character b/c someone mistakenly labeled this as Scottish (whatever that means).

Bottle. Pours amber with a small, off-white head. Sweet caramel aroma with a hint of spice and pine. Moderately sweet flavor of caramel with some fruit and spice notes. Maybe a hint of hops. Fairly bland overall with a fruit and malt in the finish.

Relatively mild maltiness in aroma. The flavor is malty but subdued, with caramel candy and grains as well. Though it was decent, was expecting a bit more flavor.

Poured into a snifter. 3.5 A: Deeply hazed plum color. Two fingers of frothy beige head. Retention is average and a decent amount of nonuniform lacing is left 4.0 S: Holy crap, this smells exactly like Pez candies, specifically the pink ones. Exactly like them. I almost can’t believe it. Usually I try to pick out specific flavors, but I don’t see a need to for this beer. PEZ! I love it! 4.0 T: The pez flavor is definitely there, but this tastes more like beer than it smells like beer. Plenty of sweet caramel, toffee, and a pleasant toastiness to go along with it. A bit sugary overall with a spicy and herbal hop flavor. 4.0 M: Lighter medium to medium body. Good moderate carbonation. Good creaminess and smooth. Good here. 4.5 D: I like this beer for a lot of different reasons. It gives lots of caramel and toffee without being overly thick and sweet. It smells unlike any other beer I’ve ever had. (PEZ!) It drinks super easy. Great holiday ale. Serving type: bottle Reviewed on: 11-19-2011 19:15:56

Thoroughly enjoyed this one. pours a dark orange almost hazy amber. Minimal head. Malty aroma. Maybe some hints of grape or figs. Malty characters start to finish. Very smooth and easy to drink. Another winner from bells. 

On tap at mcbc pours amber brown with a tight light tan head. Clear with minimum aroma caramel roasted malt. Flavors are odd slightly sweet with a touch of bitter. Overall barely above average. Finishes odd. Long lasting but difficult to describe

Pour golden orange with white head. Aroma pine, citrus, caramel, honey, light roast. Taste pine, malt, honey, cereal, somewhat watery quite simple. MF light body watery mild carb. Meh nothing special here.