Bells Rye Stout

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Stout
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Serve in English pint

Bottle via trade as an extra thanks to kramer. Pours just about pitch black with a small but thick tan head and decent lacing. Aroma is really roasty with coffee and lots of dark rye bread. A little metal. Flavor is burnt dark rye toast, coffee, and slight metallicity. Pretty tasty despite the metallic notes, but not quite one of my favorites from Bell’s. Fairly full body and a fairly slick mouthfeel. Somewhat low carbonation. A solid offering overall.

Bottle. Almost black with a beige head. Aroma has a nice doughiness along with roasted malts. Taste does have a bit of rye in there, adding just the right dryness to it. Flavors of sour chocolate and even more coffee. How is this retired?

I can not think of any brewer that makes such a wide array of good and interesting stouts as this one does. Sampled from a 12 oz brown bottle this beer poured a black color with a very small brown head. The aroma was spicy , roasty and had a coffee element. The mouthfeel is fairly thick and smooth. The flavor was roasty, toasty and spicy with a peppery rye element. The finish was bitter caramel. Quite interesting.

Bottle brought by la Li. Black colour, small tan head. Aroma of roasted malts, rye, chocolate. Flavour of sweet roasted malts, rye, chocolate. Fairly bitter. Medium bodied and very drinkable.

12 oz. bottle from Ludlow Wines. Pours very dark brown, near black, with a tny tan head that fades immediately and leaves a thin ring around the edge. The aroma isn’t strong, but what’s there is mostly rye, with notes of coffee, roasted malts, nuts, chocolate, and figs. Flavor is roasty, not much different but certainly stronger than the aroma, with notes of rye, roasted malts, chocolate, molasses, nuts, smoke, and dark fruits. Medium bodied and smooth, with not enough carbonation to keep it from feeling flat on the palate. Light, roasty finish. Okay, but overrated- this brewery makes a lot better stouts.

UPDATED: MAY 17, 2010 Bottle. Pours a dark brown that is opaque around the edges and a thin brown head. Aroma has chocolate and caramel notes with a slight underlying dark bread (rye) note. Flavor is similar with a sweet beginning that is chocolate and caramel, but the rye grows towards the finish.

Deep, dark brown. Chewy-soft texture; light and fluffy, in a way. Notes of sweet cream, cereal, wheat-like grains, mild coffee, faint smoky wood and pinch of chocolate. Slight sourness in the finish. Dryish, mildly bitter finish. All right.

Batch 7235, February 2006; Sampled August 2008
Quite the viscous appearing brew, it definitely pours with a certain thickness to it. I easily rouse a full three fingers of a light brown colored head that fills my 25cl tulip glass to the top. The beer is a deep, almost black, concentrated brown color that shows just a hint of light in its depth when held up directly to the light. The aroma has quite a bit of spicy grain character to it, though this is not the most prominent note. Instead a nice, mellow roasted character is most notable; aromas of dark chocolate, toasted whole grain bread, smooth espresso, an earthy burnt note. A touch of fruitiness (almost a bit of prune juice) and a sweet malt note are just noticed in the nose towards the finish. While the aroma is mellow, smooth and well integrated, I would never have guessed this was two years old from the nose.

A fullness to the body does not keep this beer from having a quaffable character; this definitely has a viscous rye character to it though. A smooth roast character delivers flavors of roasted prunes, blackened raisins and a rich, deep, darkly toasted grain character that comes off with quite a bit of a biscuit / cracker character. Up front, there is a nice cocoa quality to this beer that doesn’t quite become lush chocolate flavors before a touch of roasted grain acidity kicks in. This last is quite light and the acidity actually helps to counter-balance the viscous body of this brew. This really has a nice fruitiness to it as it warms up and it definitely reminds me of a dark, sweet dried fruit (like those mentioned previously plus some fig). A significant nutty note (almost toasted hazelnut really) is in the finish and adds quite a bit of another dimension to this brew. This nutty note is likely a touch of oxidation showing through, but it adds a really nice touch here.

This has held up quite well and I am quite enjoying the cocoa notes and the bright, concentrated fruit flavors that are offset by the smooth roast character.