Batch 3,000
Bell's Brewery - Eccentric Café & General Store

 

 

 

On tap at CBC 2016 - day 2. Dried fruit, sherry, cherries, caramel, toffee. Smooth mouthfeel. Bitter-sweet aftertaste, though mostly sweet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to cmore for sharing this one with me.

Pours a dirty brown with some ruby highlights. A splish sploshy light bubbly head appears and leaves large bubbles behind.

Nose is still there. Much in the way of milk chocolate, cherry, oxidation, and an earthy appeal. Musty caramel as well with a hint of smoke.

Very suprised at how well this has held up. Milk and dark chocolate dominate with a tootsie roll type chocolate as well. Toffee and caramel with a slight roast and dried cherry flavors. Some oxidation and obviously needs drank now. A couple of years past its prime but damn good regardless.

(This review is a transcription from notes taken earlier)

I bought this as a freshie and tonight (04.30.08), to celebrate the life of someone close to me, I decided to toast her with this one.

It opens nearly still. It has a beautiful dark mahogany color. It's like mahogany that has been livng in a smoky room for a long time. It has little aroma but the initial taste is bitter moving toward sweet. After a first taste, I notice slight lace forming on the side of the glass. It's a phantom lace. The taste now turns toward licorice. The mouthfeel is silky and the body is medium heavy.

This beer is past its prime. I'm used to more activity with a Bell's Commemorative batch. It is still a very good beer. In it's old age it represents the brewery well. Drink 'em up.

I just got this at B&B. There might be a few bottles left if you hurry and get there soon. I'm quite sure they refrigerated them the whole time, so they held up as well as they could.

Pop the cap and no sound. Pour the beer and there's is no head but a little ring of carbonation atop the liquid. A deep purple color that's darker towards the bottle of the glass.

Aroma is amazing. Vinous dark fruits, figs, somewhat yeasty, and a touch of bittersweet chocolate. I could honestly smell this all day long. They should make candles that smell like this.

Taste, however, did not hold up to its end of the bargain. This hasn't gone sour yet but its on the backside and has passed its peak. The malts have kind of thinne out or separated a bit. Residual burnt caramel and some brown sugar, but also a bit of the chocolate, though its sweeter in taste than aroma. A definite soy character towards the finish. Some figs and plums ride in with the soy. Almost cloying but not because of the alcohol. Guessing this was about 7-8% abv. The finish is really hurting though where the beer sort of falls apart with a thinnish yeasty aftertaste. Starts out good enough but just can't make it all the way through.

Drinkability was decent and this beer grew on me the more I sipped and savored. Improved as it warmed and came together a bit more. A great find and still not bad.