Bells Twentieth Anniversary Ale

Formerly brewed at Bells Brewery
Style: Amber Ale
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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Bottle. Interesting choice for an anniversary ale. Pours a hazy amber with a thin head. Caramel malts dominate the aroma. The taste is caramel, floral hops, and a slight bread note. An extra plus is that it is not as watery as most ambers I have had. This one is a cut above.

Cloudy dirty orange in color with a small head. Medium body with a well balanced malt / hop ratio. Clean refreshing taste, has an initial sweet caramel malty flavor with a hop bitterness at the end. This is a great summertime brew, one of my new favorites, this is at the top of my list for ales. Tastes great with pepperoni pizza.

(Bottle via trade with BBB63, thanks Mike!) Pours a cloudy fairly deep amber with about 1/2" of amber-biege head. Aroma of fruity hops and malt. No real lacing. Mouthfeel full, smooth, lightly prickly in finish. Nicely balanced fairly mild flavor of fruity hops and malt with a moderately bitter finish. Pretty tasty.

Bottle. Pours a cloudy darkish amber with very little head. Malty and toasty on the nose. Caramel and coffee with hops on the palate. Too much roasted flavors and not enough hops for my liking in an amber. Thanks to Styles for the bottle.

12oz bottle. Batch #7100. Hazy and cloudy. Yellowish brown and murky. Halo and web of white head. Caramel malt and citrus. Cocoa and toast. Smooth malts with a pruny, slight burn flavor. Sweet and toffee with a zesty lively crisp finish. Good hops. Fruity. This is good! Nothing over the top, but hey, it’s another solid effort from Larry!

Dull copper pour, small head, gone quickly. Malty, Citrus on the back of my tongue, slightly hoppy. A pretty good brew, especially for a style, that I don’t seek out much. Thanks to MarkR for the brew!

12oz. bottle. Dark orange with a small white head. Tinges of citric hops over a mellow slightly caramel maltiness in the aroma. Ruddy, singed malt flavors with some toastiness. Mild sweetness in the finish with some hop astringency in the finish. Mouthfeel is medium light, fairly smooth and somewhat dry.

12 oz bottle: who says you have to make a big beer, an imperial whatever, for an anniversary beer? Poured cloudy orange with a medium sized beige head. Lots of floaters in this one. Aroma is of malt and yeast with a little fruity hops. Flavor is all malt- a touch of brown sugar with mild hops. Light grass finish. This is an American Amber Ale at its finest.

Huge props to OhioDad for this bottle in a trade. Pours turbid dark coppery (crayola orange through direct light) with 1-finger white head. The aroma is heavy corn flakey roasty malt, citric and fruity, with some nuts and toffee, and a little bit of sour fruit. The taste is roasty toasty Wheaties dipped in honey, topped with pears, mangoes, honeydew, and walnuts, then given a small immersion in cacao powder. The palate is very smooth, on the dense side, and complex. I get more toffeeish nuttiness and more roasty Wheaties as it warms, plus some more tropical fruitiness, with massive complexity due to the non-filtration. This one is great. In fact, as far as I’m concerned, it might be the best damned amber ale I’ve ever quaffed.

Bottle courtesy, and thanks to Styles. Thanks bro! Deep copper pour sits under a froth of off white, rocky froth. A subtle lace lines the glass. Heavy malt aromas with brown sugar, burnt tobacco, butterscotch, and american hops to round it out. Sweet burnt malt flavours are first here, with caramel, subtle fruit, and a good hops bitterness. Medium bodied, pleasant carbonation with lenghty bitter hops and sweet malt lingering. Good representation of the style.