Bell's Batch 6000

[steveh]

Their annual Old Ale, Special Edition beer, 10.5% ABV. $13.99 a sixer!! My local purveyor is selling single bottles for $2.00.

The beer poured a hazy, chestnut brown. A thin, cream to tan colored head that disipated to a hint of foam on the top, but was revived to a creamy (small bubbles) top with a quick swirl of the glass.

Estery, peach to plumb noted nose. Much hops also, and faint alcohol. As the beer warmed, the alcohol nose became more prominent - along with a candy sweetness.

Initial flavor was malty caramel with unfermented malt sugars present. Subtle raisin/plumb flavors with alcohol back. It had a hoppy finish with alcohol warming. As the beer warmed, more malt was apparent in the aftertaste and the hops and malts balanced in a mouthful.

Body was medium to thick - becoming thicker as the beer warmed. Good carbonation that tended toward too much effervescence in its mouth feel, but not to the point of distraction.

Very nice stuff, I need to get a couple more bottles for cellaring.

S.

[studentofbeer]

is it called batch 6000 on the box/label? i havent seen this around yet, and i love bells!

[steveh]

Yup. This is the third or fourth year (maybe sixth?) that they've brewed this. A friend of mine has two bottles of Batch 4000 in his fridge...for now! ;)

I'll post the legend that's printed on the label tomorrow (bottle's at home), it tells a little of the story of the beer.

S.

[steveh]

In answer to a Batch 6000 e-mail query to Kalamazoo Brewing, and direct from brewmaster, Alec Mull's fingers:

"I wanted to make this beer unique, and one way to do that is to use ingredients that are uncommon (and of course lots of them).

This beer contains some hops from New Zealand called Super Alpha and Nelson Sauvin. It also has some Simcoe from the US that is starting to become popular.

The grist is pretty simple using some darker Caramalts, Roasted, and Flaked Barley.

This one should mature quite well."

Beer people are too cool! Thanks Alec.

S.

[Beaver]

I was lucky enough to try this while I was back in Michigan. Here are my thoughts:

Batch 6000 poured a dark ruby brown with small particulates. It had a thick creamy off-white head with fairly fine bubbles, that retained well - almost stout-like. It had a very complex flavor that's difficult to describe, there's a lot going on! It had a sweet malty start with a very hoppy finish - almost too much so. It also had a strong alcohol taste (almost mediciney) with hints of toffee, caramel and slight citrus. It was a nice full-bodied beer. I can appreciate the complexity of this beer, but it wouldn't make a good session beer.

[GunNut76]

Sounds like a barleywine...I'll have to crack my bottle open sometime this week and if I like it I'll buy a sixer and age it.

[tavernjef]

Bell's Batch 6000 is some awesome stuff!! Recommend picking some up if ya can get it. Here's my notes from a recent sampling by yours truely:

Pours a syrupy brown but settles like a thick murky brown sludge, getting close to black with some lighter yeasty crumbs floating around in suspended animation. Head about a finger high, tannish and thickly foamed but dissolves fairly quickly to a thin ring, lace is in sticky whisped strings and sparitc spotting.

Smell is hugely malted with caramel wafting from the glass with a deep, deep dark pineyness of hops that lays in the back lusciously tormenting you to sniff deeper which brings out notes of ripe raisin and dark citrus, alcohol smokes through after each sip into the nose and right into your head.

Taste is a whole lotta caramel malt, large and in your face, characterized in thickness with a complexing hop profile that really shines. The hops begin to start dancing almost as soon as it hits your tongue, those malts are just laying the groundwork here and keeping a great balance. Hops are somewhat abrasive, raw, and earthy, but in a good way, bitterness is steeped in pine, quite deep and dark, resiny, grapefruity deep soured and lingering. The hops pull up and take a seat on your tongue and hang there for the length of a road trip. Quite amazing! Feel is pretty smooth and heavy, full and lush, a bit pushy even, with a great finish of hoppy piney bittering that lingers on and on and on. An exceptional barleywine! Goes down surprisingly easy and the alcohol hardly makes its presense felt til much later.

Aging this will calm down those abrasive hops and mellow it out some. I've noticed a difference already from my first bottle when it first came out to a one I had the other night. Just a nudge less hoppy, and seemed smoother, which is surprisingly incredibly to think of this beer becoming more drinkable, yikes, could be dangerous eh.

:)

[davesarman]

That's quite a review there! You should do that professionally! :cool:

[chazwicke]

I second Davesarman on that!

[chazwicke]

I'll be trying one of these babys very soon myself. (Thanks Steveh!)

[BluesHarp]

I'll revive this thing...

I had a Bells 6000 last night with bluesnbrews; he had received it some time ago in a trade and had in his beer cellar...I assume it had been cellared before he got it as well.

I won't try to do too comprehensive a review as I didn't take any notes at the time...so with that caveat:

Others had mentioned the abundance of hops present; I don't recall noticing much at all in the way of obvious hops.
The aroma and flavor were caramel, dark toffee, maybe some subtle raison, and more caramel...like a liquid Heath bar.

It was one of those beers where both tasters took a sip, broke into wide grins, looked at each other and simply nodded as if to say "yeah, baby...that's the one!" The caramel-toffee became even more pronounced as the beer warmed, but never became sweet to the point of being cloying; there was enough hops and alcohol to balance it out.

I found this to be a wonderfully malty, stick to your lips, dessert of a beer; I would encourage anyone having some cellared to give it another try...my only problem will be trying to find some more, all I have cellared is batch 5000 - "The Smoke Monster"

[davesarman]

Funny you should revive this thing, as I had a Batch 6000 myself recently. Here are my notes:

Big, strong aroma of malt, alcohol and hops. Mostly sweet malt and alcohol. Pours a brownish red. Light carbonation, but a thick, tight collar of foam forms and clings to the side of the glass. Taste: big and bold. Lots of sweet malt up front. Some bitterness on the sides of the tongue in the middle. Sweetness shows up again at the start of the finish, and hops, along with warming alcohol show up at the end of the finish. Sweet, somewhat fruity, almost vinuous. Complex and getting better as it ages.


I bought a sixer of this earlier this year and from what I've tasted so far, age is doing some nice things to this beer.