Bells Eccentric Ale

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

Shared with Andrew!! Vintage 2007 Appearance: Pours a rootbeer brown with a stripe of tan at the top. Aroma: Dark fruits, maple syrup, and anise. Taste: Maple syrup, cola, chocolate and dark fruit. Mouthfeel: Thick and sticky. Overall: Very rich, very interesting and certainly very sweet.

12oz bottle from Northernbrews. 2006 version. Pours murky brown with small tan head. Aroma is clove, dark fruits, spices, hops, herbal and some sweet malts. Flavor is fruity and spicy at same time. Lots of dark fruits, sweet malts,clove, herbs, spices, and some hops. Mouthfeel was a little chewy but had appropriate carbonation. Really complex flavor and unique brew. Would take a couple of glasses to truely figure out. Have 2 other vintages I cannot wait to try. Nice brew to enjoy on Christmas.

2007 bottle thanks to secret santa. Batch number marked on the back was "k8309". Pours with a deep brown, near black body and a tan head. Aroma of maple, nuttiness, chocolate, fudge, light brandy and coconut. Taste is odd, some chai tea, chocolate, maple, anise and bourbon like vanilla. Creamy mouthfeel a nice sipper that seems to be hitting stride as far as age/oxidation.

2008 Bottle. Pours black with little head. Smells of brown sugar, caramel, alcohol, licorice. Taste is sweet like a desert wine. Full bodied and thick. Flavors of sugar, caramel, spices, vanilla and some bitters with an alcohol wash. Lots of things going on in this beer as it warms. Good sipping beer, maybe two bottles in a sitting, a little sweet for my taste. Nice beer all around.

A 2007 bottle from JCapriotti via trade. The pour was a beautiful mahogany color with a short, almost tan head and not much in terms of lacing. The aroma was honey, cedar, alcohol and tobacco. The flavor was honey, spices, hops and tobacco with a welcome surge of alcohol on the finish. Medium bodied, almost slick in the mouthfeel. A real treat.

Bottle: Thanks Eric! Pours a dark brown muddy color with a thin slick of head. This one feels quite aged but it’s still very sharp and bright. A nice rich cherry and sherry note along with light alcohol and hops with some tobacco and dark caramel malts. Creamy body and a nice tart finish to round out all this decadence. Light hops in the end but great and spicy. Thanks Eric!

Bold spices and rich chocolate swirl with abundant hops in the nose. Dark brown pour with an ample beige head. Flavor is certainly spicy, with rosemary pushing to the forefront. Chocolate notes mix with a complex nuttiness, and then move towards the bitter hoppy finish. Mouthfeel is nice, but overall, goes down less smoothly than I’d like it to. The rosemary is interesting, but overpowering for me. I’m very glad to have tried this one. Takes on an extremely quirky old ale essence to me. Commendations all around for stepping out of the box!

Bottle shared by Eric over Jordan’s place, thanks man! 2004 edition. Pours a dark brown color with a nice beige head. The aroma is sweet, syrupy, dark fruits. A rich flavor of so many things; roasted malts, sweet spicy flavors, a bit of oxidation, a trace of hops and a rich dark fruit. Really interesting, the kind of beer I need to try multiple times to figure out. Very nice.