Kalamazoo Stout | Bell's Brewery - Eccentric Café & General Store
Brewed by:
Bell's Brewery - Eccentric Café & General Store
Michigan, United States
bellsbeer.com
Style: American Stout
Alcohol by volume (ABV): 6.00%
Availability: Year-round
Notes / Commercial Description:
Named after the city where it all began, Kalamazoo Stout is one of our most classic recipes. This smooth, full-bodied stout offers a blend of aromas and flavors of dark chocolate and freshly roasted coffee, balanced with a significant hop presence.
Added by BeerAdvocate on 12-11-2001
HISTOGRAM
View: Beers | Place Reviews
Ratings: 4,473 | Reviews: 1,615
4.15/5 rDev +4.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
4.21/5 rDev +5.8%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
Poured from a 12oz bottle with a packaged on date of 9/20/18; into a pint glass.
Appearance- pitch black with some detectable bubbles along the side of the glass; head is a medium thick, frothy beige that leaves rings of lathered lacing!
Smell- an assortment of aromas ranging from vanilla, dark chocolate, roasted coffee bean and graham cracker malts!
Taste- follows along the nose for the most part with the coffee, graham cracker and dark chocolate standing out!
Feel - medium body, semi dry and with a pleasing dark chocolate and coffee bitterness!
Overall- this is a brilliant stout IMO, as it hits for the cycle without attempting to get too cute!
653 characters
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
Poured from a 12oz bottle with a packaged on date of 9/20/18; into a pint glass.
Appearance- pitch black with some detectable bubbles along the side of the glass; head is a medium thick, frothy beige that leaves rings of lathered lacing!
Smell- an assortment of aromas ranging from vanilla, dark chocolate, roasted coffee bean and graham cracker malts!
Taste- follows along the nose for the most part with the coffee, graham cracker and dark chocolate standing out!
Feel - medium body, semi dry and with a pleasing dark chocolate and coffee bitterness!
Overall- this is a brilliant stout IMO, as it hits for the cycle without attempting to get too cute!
653 characters
4.67/5 rDev +17.3%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75
Look - pours a blacker than black, black color - completely opaque - not even a slight glow of light gets through. There is a nice dark tan head that forms - 2 finger head - recedes on schedule - stays active though with lacing and a foam ring around the glass
Smell - Rich caramel, chocolate, tobacco, malt, charred oak, slight dark fruit, notes of licorice.
Taste - starts off with a hop bite and dark dark roasted (burnt) grains - seems a bit chalky at first but it moves into some sweet caramel and chocolate. Dries out and you get some smoke and charred oak / almost barrel aged. Very rich and flavorful. Seems to move between a sweet Baltic Porter and a strong Dry Stout - back and forth and back and forth. Nice complexity here
Feel - very thick and stays fairly active with carbonation
Overall - this is a very good porter. I am pleasantly surprised at how powerful the flavors are in this one. Many porters are chocolately and caramelly... but pretty watered down and subdued. Very happy with this one. I am very happy to finally get BELL's distributed to Colorado!! I am from Michigan but have not been able to drink their brew out here (usually around GABF limited quantities show up).
1,217 characters
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75
Look - pours a blacker than black, black color - completely opaque - not even a slight glow of light gets through. There is a nice dark tan head that forms - 2 finger head - recedes on schedule - stays active though with lacing and a foam ring around the glass
Smell - Rich caramel, chocolate, tobacco, malt, charred oak, slight dark fruit, notes of licorice.
Taste - starts off with a hop bite and dark dark roasted (burnt) grains - seems a bit chalky at first but it moves into some sweet caramel and chocolate. Dries out and you get some smoke and charred oak / almost barrel aged. Very rich and flavorful. Seems to move between a sweet Baltic Porter and a strong Dry Stout - back and forth and back and forth. Nice complexity here
Feel - very thick and stays fairly active with carbonation
Overall - this is a very good porter. I am pleasantly surprised at how powerful the flavors are in this one. Many porters are chocolately and caramelly... but pretty watered down and subdued. Very happy with this one. I am very happy to finally get BELL's distributed to Colorado!! I am from Michigan but have not been able to drink their brew out here (usually around GABF limited quantities show up).
1,217 characters
4.39/5 rDev +10.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5
3.9/5 rDev -2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
3.82/5 rDev -4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
4.38/5 rDev +10.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
4.11/5 rDev +3.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
4.19/5 rDev +5.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4
3.91/5 rDev -1.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
Pours very dark, impossible to see through. Strong hints of caramel, dark chocolate, and burnt coffee on the nose. Taste is strong of malt and dry, rich coffee. Coffee after taste lingers. Hints of some sort of spice and vanilla bean as well in taste. Nothing wrong with this Stout, but nothing to write home about.
$10.99 for a 6pk.
335 characters
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
Pours very dark, impossible to see through. Strong hints of caramel, dark chocolate, and burnt coffee on the nose. Taste is strong of malt and dry, rich coffee. Coffee after taste lingers. Hints of some sort of spice and vanilla bean as well in taste. Nothing wrong with this Stout, but nothing to write home about.
$10.99 for a 6pk.
335 characters
3.91/5 rDev -1.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
Bottled 2/19/2018 and poured from 12. oz. bottle into snifter glass. It pours nearly black with dark walnut hues and a half finger of fluffy, mocha-colored lacing that dissipated slowly as the glass warmed. Its nose features roasted malt, burnt coffee, dark chocolate, nuts, and whiffs of caramel, peat, tobacco smoke, and anise. The taste is mostly burnt and dry with burnt coffee and char, along with dry nuts, baker's chocolate, anise, and earthy peat. There's some bitter hoppiness at the finish but it's hard to distinguish from the bitterness of the burnt coffee. For a stout it has a rather thin mouth feel, with light to moderate carbonation, and its 6% ABV poses no limit on its drinkability. It drinks more like a Porter. Overall, if you like bitter, burnt stouts, then this one's for you. If you like sweet chocolate or dark fruit, then I'd suggest a different offering.
882 characters
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
Bottled 2/19/2018 and poured from 12. oz. bottle into snifter glass. It pours nearly black with dark walnut hues and a half finger of fluffy, mocha-colored lacing that dissipated slowly as the glass warmed. Its nose features roasted malt, burnt coffee, dark chocolate, nuts, and whiffs of caramel, peat, tobacco smoke, and anise. The taste is mostly burnt and dry with burnt coffee and char, along with dry nuts, baker's chocolate, anise, and earthy peat. There's some bitter hoppiness at the finish but it's hard to distinguish from the bitterness of the burnt coffee. For a stout it has a rather thin mouth feel, with light to moderate carbonation, and its 6% ABV poses no limit on its drinkability. It drinks more like a Porter. Overall, if you like bitter, burnt stouts, then this one's for you. If you like sweet chocolate or dark fruit, then I'd suggest a different offering.
882 characters
4.12/5 rDev +3.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
3.5/5 rDev -12.1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
4.05/5 rDev +1.8%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
This puppy's got some heat to it! Smacked me straight in the face on my first sip. Damn dude, it's somewhere between black ale and cream stout on the first sip, then balances out into a bitter coffee ice cream with some hop notes in the aftertaste. That's a whirlwind of flavors, and completely fits my impression of Bells as a brewing company. The nose is primarily coffee with a handful of banana candy. Typical stout stuff, nothing special. In looks, I'm not too impressed but mostly because my litmus test is Guinness extra stout. Warm black, opaque, with a thin foamy thing of beige pond scum on top. Not much lace. A solid, full-bodied and complex stout. Well done.
671 characters
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
This puppy's got some heat to it! Smacked me straight in the face on my first sip. Damn dude, it's somewhere between black ale and cream stout on the first sip, then balances out into a bitter coffee ice cream with some hop notes in the aftertaste. That's a whirlwind of flavors, and completely fits my impression of Bells as a brewing company. The nose is primarily coffee with a handful of banana candy. Typical stout stuff, nothing special. In looks, I'm not too impressed but mostly because my litmus test is Guinness extra stout. Warm black, opaque, with a thin foamy thing of beige pond scum on top. Not much lace. A solid, full-bodied and complex stout. Well done.
671 characters
Kalamazoo Stout from Bell's Brewery - Eccentric Café & General Store
Beer rating:
3.98 out of
5 with
4,473 ratings
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