Bells Expedition Stout

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

Serve in Snifter

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   update pic

UPDATED: APR 9, 2007 Pitch black, pour with little or no head, little carbonation. This has a very complex flavor, its very rich. Has a lot of chocolate, many a plum type sweetness. This is an exceptional IMP.

Extremely thick and impossibly delicious. Heavily flavored with coffee and chocolate, and very creamy. No carbonation, opaque black.

UPDATED: AUG 1, 2008 Pours an inky black with no head or carbonation. It’s so thick that that, combined with its deep, black appearance makes it looks just like used motor oil (as many have pointed out). The aroma is of roasted malts, alcohol, and cocoa. The smell is so powerful and rich, that is sticks to the insides of your sinus cavities. This feels heavy and thick in the mouth, like syrup, and slowly coats your entire mouth. The flavor explodes with coffee, roasted malts, plums, brown sugar; this is very complex. I would lower the appearance and palate for the fact that there is no carbonation, but its other characteristics make up for it so much, that I can overlook that. Thanks Racegoer!

Talk about your sipping beer, this one is not for drinking a lot of. The beer looks like the motor oil from the Rolling Stone’s stadium tour bus (after the tour). The taste is rather interesting which I’m thinking is a coffee, chocolate, burnt malt combination with some other minor tweaks. You can definatly taste the 10% alcohol in it as well. This is a must have for any stout lover.

The stout that drinks like a motor oil. I poured one of these in front of some less experienced beer drinkers and they were utterly apalled. Burnt malt, coffee, chocolate, subtle caramel, and esters combine to form an extremely complex beer. Drinks like ball bearings. I’m curious to see how this brew ages. The fresh one that I had was excellent.

Very dark with absolutely no head. Pretty hoppy aroma for an imperial, but still mostly malt. Burnt, chocolate, slight coffee, licorice. Starts bitter and finishes sweetly astringent with a syrupy mouthfeel. Pretty good, I wish I could have savored it longer.

Very very dark in color. Caramel aroma and low carbonation. When warmer a strong roasty flavor comes through. Very thick. I want to try this again as mine tasted very flat

Sipped for the first time at the moment it tripped over to 2003. Happy Frickin’ New Year and all. Dark, with a minimal coffee-colored head. Smells like a flavored hot chocolate of some sort, fruity, has some spice of some sort, maybe vanilla or allspice? Flavor is mega-chocolate laced with several pounds of hops. Very hoppy stout. Big malts, also, roasted all to snot. Strong, a bit vinous, but richly creamy and very enjoyable. Had been waiting a long time for this one, worth the wait. A fitting close to the most eventful year of my life. 2003, be good, or I’ll kick your ass.

A truly "over the top" version of the many great Bell’s Stouts. And despite my huge ratings for Bell’s products, this one is a little too strong. The high alcohol and syruppy beer is a little rugged to handle. A beautiful product, but for Bell’s to make an Imperial Stout stand out, they really had to drill it with ingredients/alcohol.

Rich aroma with burnt caramel, dark plummy fruit, mocha chocolate and a tinge of vanilla. Pours opaque brown-black with smallish fizzy brown head. Rich fully flavor, chewy and lightly tingly - I think the tingling comes from a slight astringency rather than carbonation. Strong mocha and espresso flavor with a roasted finish. Fruity plummy overtones throughout. Heady and fulfilling, very nicely balanced and drinkable.