Bells Java Stout

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Stout
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Serve in English pint

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Aroma is old coffee and serrano peppers. Odd. Not much going on here but coffee and stout. Maybe a bit of lactose, fairly balanced, not really sweet. Not terribly bitter. After having the Mill Street Balzac Coffee Stout in Toronto, this is sadly lacking.

I love coffee, I drink a pot every morning and love coffee flavored things too. This, I did not love. Oh yes, it was full of coffee and yes it was Sumatra (one of my favorites), but this was thin, acidic, and unpleasant. Coffee is just not good cold unless it is sweet espresso, and this was not only cold it tasted like coffee grounds - you know, that old, dingy taste that worsens with age like a burned out cigarette. It is imperative that a coffee stout have an equal amount of malt and roundness to back up the flavor, and this just doesn’t.

Being a java stoudt i expected it to have very strong coffee tones but what i tasted was more than i imagined. If you like cold cofee this is your beer. I wouldnt mind starting a long day of drinking off a 10 am with a cold one of these or maybe as an after dinner treat.

UPDATED: MAR 8, 2004 After being blown away by the Expedition Stout, I was expecting another good stout. Looks impressive with its deep brown body and fluffy tan head. Aroma of strong coffee reminded me of coffee ice cream. Crisp and slightly effervescent with medium fullness. Unfortunately the flavor of this stout tastes like that time when I accidentily drank coffee grounds that were floating in my cup. This is rather unpleasant in my opinion. Like stale wet coffee grounds. I may not even finish this one.

Bottle.

I’m usually a big Bell’s fan and usually like the style, but one thing I guess I’m realily sensitive to is the cigarette-ashy flavors that come out in a lot of espresso stouts. This is sticky-sweet syrup poured over cigarette ash, and I simply can’t do it. A shame.

I like coffee. I dont like instant coffee, folgers, maxwell, or even most burnt starbucks flavors. I like good strong coffee, so it’s not coffee taste i don’t like. I drink mine black. This tastes like coffee that has been left out for a day to oxidize. glad I tried it, but not one I enjoyed.

12 ounce bottle from Siciliano’s in Grand Rapids, MI. Clear dark brown with a thin light brown head. I usually like coffee in the aroma, but this one smells like cheap instant coffee to me. Taste is mostly just coffee. May be better than a "6" but hard to tell with that distracting aroma. I’m disappointed with this one. If you like cold black coffee this might be the beer for you.

Black pour with a small light brown head which gathers around the edges. There’s chocolate and roasted malt, dark roasted coffee, and lactose in the nose. The palate is oily, medium in body, initially lively carbonated, but settles after a few minutes. Astringent in the finish. The flavor is pretty sweet upfront and finishes with a roasted coffee bitterness and funky tartness. I find this beer too sweet for my taste and the coffee is overpowering; it’s not subtle at all. Disappointing.

Bottle: aroma of nothing but coffee. Beautiful appearance - black with a smallish dark brown head. Flavor ... man ... I love Bell's - probably my favorite brewery. BUT - and you knew that was coming - the coffee is just too much and too raw. I expected a big stout with notes and hints of coffee. This is more like coffee with hints of stout. I wanted to love it, but I just don't.

To be blunt, I just don’t like coffee at all, so it’s largely my fault for trying a beer with the word "java" in it. It’s dark. It’s smells like coffee. I don’t mean "kind of like coffee", it smells like COFFEE. The taste, not particularly surprisingly, is of COFFEE. TOO MUCH COFFEE. I swear, drink a pint of this and you won’t sleep for hours.