Bells Hell Hath No Fury

bottle courtesy of coyotehunter, thank you! batch 8739. dark brown to black pour with small brown head, some yeast flakes suspended and light lacing. aroma is very light, consisting of vanilla, fresh oak, a light cocoa and even a hint of toasty coconut every now and then. taste is toasty, nice creamy mouthfeel, a smooth drinker. i appreciate the carbonation and full body that last all the way through.

Bottle from pimpp, thanks patrick. Batch 8739, about a year old...Black wax? Black pour with a one finger sized head. Aroma of some oak, raisons, dark fruits and some maltiness. Doesnt taste like the nose... light coffee, roasted malts, and chocolate. Reminds me of a stout.... Texture is on the lighter side but still good. Overall not what I was expecting but still a nice brew!

Bottle. Pour is deep brown (almost black) slight bitterness. Dry on the finish with a bit of alcohol. Big Flavors, caramel, vanilla, coffee. Good Stuff.

Another lovely bottle thanks to coyotehunter. Pours black with minimal foam. What there was disappears almost immediately. Aroma is coffee, chocolate, roasted malt, and vanilla booze. Taste is the same. There is an odd flatness to the flavor that I’m not sure what to make of. It is tasty, and the ABV is well hidden until right at the very tail end of the palate. It’s an almost metallic quality that I’ve encountered in a few beers of late and makes me wonder if something hasn’t gone slightly wrong with this one. Still, the emphasis should be on "slighty". It’s a medium bodied brew that brings a fine smokey quality and plenty of flavor to the table. Like a woman, well worth weathering the rough patches for the moments of glory in between.

Bottle, thanks to ballewblake. The smell is malts, chocolate, coffee, roasty, smoke, and nice. The look is brown to black in color with a decent beige colored head. The taste is malts, coffee, choclate, and roast.

Nice brew from Bells. Don’t get me wrong, this is a really tasty beer, but not necessarily true to style. First off, head retention was a little weak. Belgian yeast character not very prominent. In a blind taste test I would wager that more often than not people would pin it as a baltic/imperial porter than a belgian dubbel. Rich dark chocolate with heavy to medium roast malt with some lingering hop on the back end.

6-Pack from Capone’s, Norristown, PA...bottle pours dark brown with a bit of reddish tinge around the edges, small tan head...smell of malts, dark fruits and brown sugar...flavor included much of the same with a hint of licorice and black cherry, bit of alcohol on the back-end...nice smooth mouthfeel...another really good offering from Bells...I’d enjoy it even more in the colder months.

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

Certainly a terminology all of us are familiar with. Bell’s Brewing out of Comstock, Michigan fully understands that there is no hell like the hell born of a woman scorned, hence their delightfully dark and stormy ale, Hell Hath No Fury. One of the few beers of Bells I have not quaffed yet, it was graciously gifted to me by a near and dear beer friend. Truly, friends are one of a beer geek’s greatest assets. That being said, enough blathering, it is time to get to drinking.

She descended a deep dark brown with a furious head of brown thunderclouds hanging low and ominous upon my helpless person frozen in fear. As I hunker down for the long haul, she crackles across my glass with veritable lightning strikes of brown lace. Like all Bells beers, she is not filtered, so I make sure to further aggravate her person and gaze in lip-smacking delight as little chunky bits float suspended, dissolving slowly as they descend to the bottom of my glass. With no end in sight, her nose slaps me in the face, splitting a huge grin of delight from ear to ear. Prunes, prune juice, black licorice, figs, plums, black cherries, pineapple raw and spiky, and baker’s chocolate ride atop a wave of graham crackers, pure cracked cacao beans, tobacco leaves which exude cigar humidor esters, and finally, tree bark, dry and earthy. Heavy and rich, I wilt under the weight, descending into her blackish brown depths where none have escaped. Immediately mouth-coating, she doesn’t leave much lace, but instead a thin film of brown tears immediately coat my glass. Prunes, prune juice, figs, dates, and pitted black cherries lead into licorice root and tobacco leaves that linger long into the finish. Licking my lips, I revel in creamy milk chocolate, truffle powder, and brilliantly bitter bakers chocolate. As my palate slowly starts to dry, earth and bark keep me grounded as her watershed of exhilarating flavors threatens to sweep me away. If this is Hells Fury, then I have nothing to fear but fear itself. Each quaff layers on the brown tears while she sticks to the back of my throat with further tobacco leaf notes. I would love to pair this beer with a hearty, rich, and earthy cigar. A faint presence of spice lingers in my breath, a final kiss as I bid my Hell Hath No Fury good-bye.

I had no idea what to expect going into this beer, and everything was a pleasant surprise. While no one in their right mind would ever want to cross the wrong woman, I will gladly cross this one any day of the week. I lived through the storm once; I am sure I can weather another… and another… and another.