Third Coast Old Ale

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Barley Wine
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Dark murky amber pour with a light tan head. This beer smells amazing. Dark fruit, raisins, pineapple, spice, light hops, just very rich. Syrupy sweet and smooth mouthfeel with caramel, a lot of raisin and more dark fruit flavors, then a little hoppiness hinting at a barely burnt/smoke flavor before a nice alcohol finish. Fantastic beer from the brewery down the road. As Bells goes, this one puts up a fight with Expedition. Awesome.

Pours murky amber with a moderate head. Aroma of molasses, spices, and caramel. Very smooth flavor with nice alcohol finish.

Fantastic beer. A very matured flavor even fresh. A musty hoppiness and deep toffee/caramel maltiness. Not overly complex, but with age the slight vinuous nature of the beer will emerge and the hops will settle very similarly to Behemoth from FFF. 848417 ----- Batch 7695 Date consumed 7/27/08 Aroma is huge caramel maltiness, port, caramel. Bright red fruit. Looks beautiful: bright amber/orange, legs that go on forever. Taste is sweet red fruit, some club soda flavor, faded hops, caramel, oxidation. Finish is harsh bitter hoppiness with a lot of pine and citrus. 9/5/8/4/17 ------ Batch 7124 Consumed 7/31/08 Aroma is bright red fruit, some sherried oxidation, and alcohol. After three years this beer has become subdued in carbonation, bright, ripe red fruit, still hoppy, plum. Very, very nice. Finishes smooth. 9/4/9/5/17

Pours dark red/brown with a moderate head. Strong alcoholic warmth upfront with a berry, caramel, wine-like quality. Aroma of raisins and molasses of sorts. Quite a crazy beer!

Review of rating: Sampled a 2 year old bottle (Batch 6522; June 2005), courtesy of csbosox. Overall rating is unchanged, but with age, I dropped the aroma by one point and bumped up the flavor by one. The older bottle lost a bit of its complexity on the nose but gained a smoothness to the flavor that made it very well balanced. After a couple years of cellaring the nose and flavor seem more in sync. Young or aged its an amazing beer. Thanks for sharing this one, Chris.//Batch 7695; October 2006. Pours an opaque molasses with a pitted, frothy, tan head which laces nicely. The aroma is amazing, one of the best I’ve ever sampled. Candied apple, pineapple, raisin, plum, and spicy hops with just a hint of alcohol in the background. The mouthfeel is full, creamy, sticky-sweet and soft on the tongue. The flavor is sweet dark fruits (plums/raisins/dates) with a smoky alcohol finish. This one is a bit "hot" on the finish, but still an excellent beer. I may need to cellar a few bottles for a year or two to see how it mellows.

Bottle from Capone’s sampled with Mad_Indian. Deep amber with a decent size off-white head. Aroma of caramel, molasses, spices, and alcohol. The flavor is amazingly smooth, caramel, molasses, spices, nice hoppy presence, and a good alcohol punch in the finish.

Bottle from Capones, Sampled with Stegosaurus. Red amber pour with aroma of sweet malt and a hint of alcohol. Mild fruit, and hop taste. Blended well and a good kick in the end. Good brew but than again it is BELLS!!!

Drewbeerme hooked this up. Hazy dark reddish brown with a moderate head, good lacing and retention. Aroma is big in almost all ways. PNW hops with some chewy caramel, toffee type malts. Fairly heavy beer, sweet syrupy finish with light alcohol. It’s good, but didn’t come off like a 4+/5 barley wine.