Bells Porter

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Porter
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Pours dark brown. Fluffy two-finger head of tan foam. Decent retention and pretty good lacing. Nice roasted maltiness. Some coffee, chocolate and nuttiness. Slight notes of vanilla and hazelnut. Roasted barley. Light chocolate and coffee notes. Toasted hazelnut. Not quite hearty enough for my preferences. Medium bodied and slightly waterey tasting. Carbonation is too sharp, defeating any creaminess that might have helped this one out. Would make an easy session brew, if only by it’s inoffensiveness and lack of anything ’special’. I suppose, if I wanted to drink alot of these, I probably could. Not my fave release from Bell’s.

To get the full effect of the aroma, let it warm a bit. The taste is somewhat a let down after the delicious nose. Hints of chocolate and roasted barley lightly kissed by smoke. Palate was a little thin ..... not a bad brew, just not powerful enough.

Pours dark brown, the first smell is metallic but the taste is brown sugar, malted coffee. The flavor is amazing and full of surprise. Nice on the palate and very robust, far from average! Not a big head but has lacing. The aftertaste is very sweet and goes down great.

12 oz. bottle from The Party Source. Pours cloudy dark brown with a big rocky tan head that laces the glass. Notes of roasted malt, coffee, brown sugar, leather, caramel, and chocolate. Smooth and sweet, with a medium body and syrupy mouthfeel. Sweet, roasty finish. Very good but not a top-level porter.

Bottle. Dark brown pour. Really it’s just an average porter. Roasted malt, notes of chocolate and coffee. I had it side by side with founders porter, and founders was better.

Poured from bottle into Nonic Imperial Pint. Exceedingly dark reddish-brown, essentially black. Some head and lacing. Aroma of slightly sweet caramel and chocolate malts. Some roasty character. Smell is pretty subdued overall. Semi-sweet roasted malt upfront, with drier roasted bitterness at end. Some coffee throughout. Little one dimensional but certainly tastes good. Low to medium carbonation. Medium body and fairly smooth, but seems somewhat thin. Middle of the road Porter. Drinkable enough. Like their Kalamazoo Stout, but with some of its unique character stripped away.

Slight chocolate and coffee flavors blended together perfectly. A wonderful brew!

Bottle from the Beeryard, tasted last winter, rating just added now. My first whiff of this beer was lagerlike, but a second returned everything to normal: roasty, coffee, fresh. Feel is a little smooth, but a little thin. Bitter roasted aftertaste. There is nothing specific about this beer to note, not in terms of flavor or any other aspect; it’s neither good nor bad.