Bells Eccentric Ale

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Serve in Lager glass, Shaker, Tumbler

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Bottle at the richmond beer dig spring 2010. pours a hazy brown with a ring of tan head. Gin notes with a roasty porterish quality. Foresty piney burn from the alcohol. Interesting, but not something I’d need to have again.

Bottle. Vintage 2005. Pours a dark amber color with a small off-white head. Has a sweetish malty spicy and slightly hoppy aroma. Sweetish malty spicy flavor. Has a sweetish fruity malty spicy finish with some bitterness.

08 bottle from beerbill. Thanks! What a weird beer. It pours dark brown, the color of molasses, with a thin tan/orange head. The aroma is slightly woody with chocolate, maple syrup, molasses and dark fruit. The flavor is pretty crazy with lots of prunes and lighter notes of dates and figs. Some notes of sherry as well. Also, honey, maple syrup and exotic spices start to emerge is it warms. Very interesting. There are ever so slight hints of chocolate and roasted malt toward the finish.

UPDATED: FEB 20, 2011 Another MI gem from Derek, 12oz bottle, 2006 vintage, poured into a tulip. 7/3/7/4/14 The pour is a murky dark brown with a creamy beige head that lingers as a collar for a while and leaves some legs on the sides. It’s a bit disconcerting though as there a ton of floaties in the glass, almost chunks in fact. The aroma is certainly interesting with the vegetables and spices (coriander and nutmeg maybe?) hitting my nose first. There is a light sweet spiciness from the honey and more than a hint of chocolate and lots of dark fruits. The taste is even weirder, with a crazy spiciness hitting the tongue up front. Really tough to place the specific taste though. Definitely some spices, juniper maybe, other spices as well. The backbone is dark malts, honey and dark fruit and the finish brings back the odd spiciness. The mouthfeel is full bodied and sticky sweet but with the overpowering spiciness leaving a tingling on the palate. This is one of the more interesting beers I’ve had in a long time. Lots of odd spiciness, honey, fruits and, of course, the weird inclusion of cooked vegetables. Not my favorite Bell’s brew but glad I got to try it. 2009 bottle. 8/4/7/4/14 Thanks, of course, to Derek for this one. Pours really really dark chocolate brown, not far from stout territory, with a thick beige head that sticks around as a thin cap and leaves some sticky legs on the sides. The aroma is like a slightly spiced English barleywine or old ale. It’s got some thick syrup, caramel and toffee sweetness which is mixed with the interesting spiciness and dark fruits. Strong aroma on this one. The taste is more of the same - really big and boozy. It’s got the sweet syrup and caramel malt backbone with a spiced fruit flavor as well as a healthy earthy hop bitterness. It’s slightly medicinal to be honest with a lot of heat in the finish. The mouthfeel is bitter and sticky with syrup and hops on the palate. This is one of those ’kitchen sink’ beers where there is just a ton of different flavors and ingredients that don’t exactly come together perfectly. That said, I enjoyed it, but it’s a sipper to be sure.

12oz traded bottle from 2009. No clue what to expect...Dark brown pour with maybe some golden highlights. Medium tan head and no real lacing. Aroma almost reminds me of a quad with molasses, dark fruit and some maple syrup. Pretty full and almost sticky mouthfeel. Initially this seemed a little over sweet, almost cloying but as it warmed you can pick up all the different flavours. Pretty fun.

12 oz. bottle via trade with footbalm- thanks again, Eric! 2008 vintage. I live in Ohio and haven’t seen this on shelves, but go figure I get hooked up from Utah. Pours a dark, opaque brown, but not with the blackness of an impy stout, and a small tan head. Notes of maple syrup, honey, herbs, flowers, berry fruits (prunes, cherries, blackberries), licorice, chocolate, brown sugar, and toast. Very, very sweet, and I like it. I’m not sure what elderflowers, birch syrup, or juniper berries taste like, but I guess they’re all in here- many brands of sweetness present. Medium-full bodied, with low carbonation and a syrupy mouthfeel. 10.1% alcohol is entirely hidden. Awesome beer if you can handle something this sweet.

’05 bottle - doughy arouma. Some spice, bready malts, sweet and sweaty, yeasty and some throat burning pepper. Eccentric alright. And inconsistent

355mL 2008 ed courtesy of FlandersNed. Pours a super deep brown looking black in the glass with a healthy, one-finger tan head that has okay retneion and leaves spotty lacing. Aroma at first reminds me a lot of Gouden Carolus Easter beer (not one of my favorites); but here the nose is not overly medicinal and loaded with rotting fruits. Here the nose is dominated by prunes, raisins, licorice, cherry Twizzlers, spicy alcohol, nice complexity. I can’t really name all the flavors going on here. Taste is not too medicinal, cough syrup, cloying sweetness you get with some of these types. Instead the body is wickedly rich maple, honey, maple candies. The hops here have either faded or do nothing but mask the 11% incredibly well. Numbing, coating mouthfeel. Soft carbonation. Dry and bit bitter, dark chocolate in the finish reminiscent of a stout or something similar. But the body here is almost like a Christmas or Easter Belgian dark.

2008 bottle shared by dak on 2/16/10. dark burgundy/porter color with a teenie off white head... actually, it’s more of a ring. hell yea, this smells like birch beer!... some coffee, florals, roast, brown sugar, maple earthiness, vitamin pill (like a barrel but not), vanilla and touches of sour in there too. the palate is a bit sweet but it is weird and neat enough to be worth it. if you add chocolate to the aroma you get the flavor with a nice coffee, yeasty, brown sugar aftertaste. the medium-full body is super creamy and rich... definitely a sipper! 7/4/7/4/16/3.8

Bottled (Thanks Kalevi). Very deep brown, close to black, colour with a mediumsized beigeish brown head. Aroma is dark dry fruits, some raisins, mild wooden notes as well as some spices and ashes. Flavour is sweet fruits along some burnt sugar, spices, ashes and mild alcohol as well. Still quite easy to drink 11 % beer.