Bells Rye Stout

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Stout
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Serve in English pint

Opaque black/brown in color with an off white head. Aromas of roasted malts, grains (must be the rye), bread, and slight spiciness. Flavor is strong, great malt flavor with some bitterness coming through as well. Thick and nice as it goes down the throat.

12oz bottle pours black with a cascading creamy tan head that stays pretty well and laces well on the glass. Aromas of roasted almost burnt malt and coffee. Flavor is nice roasted malts as well. Dark roasted coffee comes through as well also just touch of toffee. Palate is smooth and creamy. Medium bodied. Amazingly drinkable. Would work well as an everyday stout.. Bells continues to impress me..

Bottled, Batch #7235. Poured a slightly-hazy deep garnet/brown with a tall, somewhat loose cap of caramel headage... low/medium viscocity. Nose was of mildly roasted milk chocolate, coffee beans with a citrus twist to ’em, grass, and darker, rye-inspired spicing. Flavor was of dark, roasty malts (grainy milk chocolate & mild coffee), citrus bitterness, and spicy rye. Medium-bodied with a light, somewhat refreshing aire to it. Grainy roasted chocolate and rye at the finish. Another tasty stout from the masters.

draft @ redlight redlight. Chocolatey aromas with hints of smoke with a nice sweetness. Pours dark brown with a thin tan head. Very smooth body, silky, spicy rye notes with sweet coffee and bitter chocolate with notes of creamy vanilla. Extremely drinkable!

UPDATED: NOV 24, 2009 12oz bottle. Batch 7235. I’m glad that this one didn’t completely slip past me! DarkPitch Elegantly balck! Ring of tan head. Nose is of toasted rye bread. No big surprise there. Sweet malt undertones with a slight hop aroma. Medium to full with a definite sweet malt dominance. Palate is oily and slick, yet grainy and fruity. Slight vanilla and caramel, baked flavor (if that makes any sense). Good! TASTED 11/24/09. 12oz BOTTLE. BATCH #9399. Similar, pitch and finger width of tan head. Similar nose. Hints of toast, caramel and berries. Touch vanilla and candy. Full bodied and a very familiar and distinct Bells flavor. Damn, they make good stouts! The rye really adds a great addition to the complexity of the palate. Bitterness to coincide with the coffee astringency. Roasty toasty and delicious. Dry with a new dimension to my past rating. Sticky lingering finish. Coating and cloying. Money.

Bottle: Very dark brown in color with a thin, creamy tan head. Aroma is a nice blend of roast and earthiness. Seemingly dry and reminds me of fresh wheat bread. Solid flavor profile is deep with roasted malts, toasted nuts, and a very light amount of bittersweet cocoa. Very well balanced. Different, but I was expecting something different too... Enjoyable for sure.

Dark, almost black pour with a small tan head. Nice roasted malt aroma with hints of rye, coffee and chocolate. Taste is an interesting roasted grain mixture, dominated by the rye - but a bit less than I expected. I just tried Bear Republic’s Hop Rod Rye DIPA and am partial to other rye DIPAs and Strong Ales so its hard to get into "lesser rye tastes". That said, I’m a big fan of everything Bells. Other tastes include a bit of coffee - almost chicory-like. The body is a bit on the thin side, which is surprising. I like this beer, but I think it would have been better to just brew some Kalamazoo Stout with a bit of rye.

This is my first sampling of some of the "new beer" we’re now able to purchase in Iowa because of our fancy new laws. Pours a black by the way of brown color with some head and some lace. The aroma is plenty of chocolate with some graininess some mild coffee and some breadiness. The flavor is again lots of chocolate with some good bitter roastiness, some coffee, some mild sweetness and a fresh fruity hoppiness. The rye is very apparent but in no way dominates the flavor of this beer but kind of works in unison with some of the other things that are going on. Pretty tasty stuff.