Bell’s Special Double Cream Stout
I ain’t gonna lie to you guys – I’m not that excited about this beer. A) I’m not REALLY a big stout fan – its true. B) I don’t really like most ales with ‘cream’ in the name. C) It’s kinda a boring label (in my opinion, but isn’t all of this my opinion?). The only thing this beer has going for it with me is the name, because I love most Bell’s beers. Our old housemate and buddy, who I shall call Perry, left this in the fridge many moons ago, and it’s overdue to be consumed, so here we go…
This stout, unsurprisingly, pours super dark hue with a light caramel colored head – it’s a fairly rich head that dissipates slowly into a thin coating over the beer. In the nose, it’s all bitter chocolate, coffee, and malt. It’s rich, that’s for sure – mighty rich. Whew! In the mouth, it’s super rich. Again, lemme be honest – right before drinking this beer, I took a couple of Thin Mints to the face (it’s Girl Scout cookie season). As it happens, this beer is an excellent accompaniment to Thin Mints. It is chock full of chocolate, mostly of a sharp and bitter variety. In addition, there are some lightly acidic coffee features and a toffee softness to this. These flavors traverse the tongue and, towards the back of the mouth, I’m sensing a dark raspberry fruit flavor kick back into the mouth, making this akin to a black forest fruit dessert in many ways. And, to be sure, the mouthfeel is thick and silky smooth. This isn’t a bad beer – it’s actually really good for what it is. Honestly, it’s too rich and too dark for my current mood. But, it has a great combination of rich malty flavors, chocolate hints, and dark fruits, and I can’t deny that these play well together. If this is your thing, and if you can even still find this beer on shelves, then check it out before the weather gets warm enough to make this stuff a moot point. However, for me, I’ll admit that this is a well executed beer by Bell’s, and I’ll move on to some lighter varieties…
It looks like a blend of this beer is going to be at Extreme Beer Fest: Night of the Barrels: “Bell’s Bourbon Barrel-Aged Expedition / Double Cream Blend: A brand spanking new blended American Stout. ” Will have to check it out.
[...] Ben and Matt, I am not a big stout drinker. I do not avoid them, but I do not go out of my way for them [...]