Bells Raspberry Ale

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Fruit Beer
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Serve in Flute, Shaker

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Should largely just say "what argo0 said". Nice raspberry up front, quite obviously uses fresh raspberries to make it. Has the nice, tart bitterness, but then nothing, no malts, no chewiness, just empty flavor. If this had some malts to lengthen the finish, it’d be quite good, but it disappears too fast.

On tap at the Eccentric Cafe. Opulent safire / red in color and semi-translucent with no head, save a tiny grey rung at the rim of the goblet. Aroma expunges sweet fruit libation - red raspberries, red currant and boysenberry syrup. Tart red raspberries and a cardboard box undercurrent maintain the flavor. A touch thin and separated, but frozen raspberries are the leading ladies. Mild touch of juicy pomegranate kernels. Airy freesia suggestions help to lightly titillate the palate, along with modest effervescence. Finishes with rose blossoms, raspberry seeds and dewed cotton. My wife f’in loved it.

festival tap: I admit that I walked to the front of the line to get this! Cloudy red with a huge raspberry and strawberry nose. Sour cherry flavor. One dimensional but refreshing. Real fruit flavor but I still think it has cherries in it as well.

Bottle sample at Beoir Go Leoir. Earthy musty sweet raspberry malt aroma. Cloudy deep rose with a small white head. Earthy sweet raspberry malt flavor. Medium body, soft carbonation.

Tap @ AZWine. Pour is red with a slightly pink tinted white head. Aroma shows notes of raspberry jam on toast. Flavor is a little more refined with dry notes of tart raspberry and wheat.

On tap. I think that this was a wheat beer ? Light aroma and flavor. Fruit is its major taste .

Location/Date:Draft at Bell’s Beer Dinner @ RFD’s, January 10th, 2012.

Appearance: Pours a cloudy red.
Aroma: Aroma is of pure raspberry..
Taste: Not as strong as aroma, some raspberry, a little bit tart..
Palate:Light champagney body with some fizz..

Summary: I wish the taste matched up to the aroma. Not a bad beer but not was the nose made me expect.

Batch K10357, Bottle 187 ; Pour is murky gold with pink highlights ; the bottle popped, revealing a bit of over carbonation here. The white head with slight pink highlighting is average initial, retains on the modest side, and there is some light lacing present. The nose is raspberry jam, seeds, caramel malts really ; I thought this one came across as a really nice drinker, and one of the better fruit beers I had, in spite of the fact that the base beer is on the boring side. Raspberry comes through in a natural , non artificial way here, and this brew drinks clean and bright, with more raspberry jam, mild tart, medium sweet, caramel, bread, and light bitter - I enjoyed it.

Draft at Eccentric Cafe 10-11-08, listed as 5% alc. on the board, pours a very clear bright dark red and ruby, gave a white head that diminished quickly, raspberry aroma without any sweetness and not much else on the nose, flavor is straight raspberry that is pretty tart on the tongue, I could not taste any malt, this is a dominant raspberry beer with very little sweetness, has a medium mouth feel and not much carbonation, I was not really impressed with this drink, it is not bad and I could not find any off fragrance or taste but is was boring towards the end of the glass.

Smelled and looked great...didn’t have much taste. Body was very thin and overcarbonated. Would be good at brunch, I guess. Strong smelling seltzer with little flavor.