Bell's Expedition Stout

Brewed By: Bell's Brewery, Inc. in Kalamazoo, Michigan  

Purchased: 12oz bottle from a 6-pack bought at Binny's in Chicago, IL; 2014 (Bottled on 09/19/2014)

Style/ABV: Russian Imperial Stout, 10.5%

Reported IBUs: ?

Winter is here early in Chicago, so I guess we can break out the big guns. About Bell's:

Bell's Brewery is one of the biggest names in craft beer. Once you get past the Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, and Stone phase, you start hearing about breweries like Bell's. Bell's began as a home-brewing supply shop, founded by Larry Bell, back in 1983. Bell's sold its first beer in September 1985. The brewery has humble roots like many of the first craft breweries, and the beer was originally brewed in a 15-gallon soup kettle. The beer was originally self-distributed, bottled, and delivered by hand during the company's first four years. In 1993, Bell's became the first brewery in Michigan to open an onsite pub. The brewery currently has two facilities, one in Kalamazoo, and one in Comstock Township, Michigan. For more info, check out their website. 

Bell's Expedition Stout is a classic, and really needs no review. This is a massive, malty, hoppy Imperial Stout...I would compare it to beers like Surly's Darkness (the non-barrel-aged version). You can't go wrong with that.

This is a pretty ferocious beer, pouring into an inky-black body that results in a finger of dark, mocha-colored head. While the beer itself doesn't produce a ton of head, head retention is pretty good. There is also a substantial amount of lacing. This is massive in so many ways.

Bell's Expedition Stout

This is also an infinitely complex beer on the aroma. I give a lot of credit to Bell's for this beer, which smells like the bottomless depths of the deepest bag of dark roasted malts. This really goes all over the place, with fruity notes, coffee, chocolate. I'm getting big anise, cherries and raisins, sharp espresso and coffee character, some mocha, and dusty cacao. This pulls out some baker's chocolate, and ties in a woody and mocha character. It's also an incredibly hoppy aroma right now (two months fresh), although the hops mostly show up as dark fruits and intense resin-bitterness. 

This tastes blissfully huge, with everything you get in the aroma plus a wallop of hop bitterness and veiled citrus/pine punch. This is a giant RIS...unloading espresso, coffee, dark baker's chocolate, cacao, and woody notes. There is some nice waves of anise and cherry in here, with tons of underlying hop oils that add some resiny rosin notes into the mix. 

The body of this beer is oily and full-bodied, and the mouthfeel has huge depth. This is also incredibly complex. At 10.5%, this is appropriately boozy. There's a lot of stuff going on here. Up front: oily chocolate, cacao, anise, dark fruits, cherries; the mids roll into more cherries and anise, with growing hop resin, rosin, dank bitterness, woody notes, roast, coffee, espresso; the back end cleans up with dark fruits, espresso, coffee, bitterness...and a drying roasty finish. This is what Russian Imperial Stouts are about.

Rating: Divine Brew (4.5/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Light Divine Brew on this. This is a world-class Russian Imperial Stout, and it reminds me of the 2013 Darkness. That's pretty tall company, and you could do a lot worse than this beer. It also is a bonus that this beer comes in a 6-pack instead of a 4-pack. I have to give Bell's credit for that. This is an insanely large beer with lots of roast, hops, and the appropriate amounts of booze. I might pair this beer with grilled meats, or a dry chocolate cake. Good stuff, recommended. 

Random Thought: The Bears suck. They can't even tank right. I guess they are going for the slow troll. 8-8.