Bells Batch 9000 Imperial Stout

Since this one is still fresh in my head from last night, I thought I'd post a review.  I had this one at The Meanwhile in Grand Rapids, MI.

Location:  Meanwhile Bar - Grand Rapids, MI

Serving:  Pint glass

Appearance: It was dark in the bar, but with the couple of overhead lights I could use this beer showed to be a very dark cherry bordering on black.  It was all but opaque.  The half inch or so of head was brown and lingered for about a minute or two.

Smell: The aroma was very sweet with dates, fennel seed (black licorice), and roasted barley.  A little bit of chocolate for me and I could smell some of the alcohol this one was going to deliver.

Taste:  The taste was immediately sweet.  I picked up dates, raspberries, chocolate, some soy and fennel.  There was just enough of a hop bitterness as to not allow the sweetness to knock you over.  If I had to guess though, not much for flavoring hops in this one.  The aftertaste lingered and gave way to the warming alcohol content on the back of my pallet.

Mouthfeel:  Mouthfeel was what I like to describe as chewy.  This beer has a lot of body and it lets you know right up front.  I would imagine this is due to the high OG (the ABV is 12.5%).

In the end, I would definitely recommend this beer to any fans of stouts and imperial stouts.  I am a hophead personally but have a lot of friends who aren't and I sometimes have trouble finding them bigger beers that don't knock their teeth out with hops.  I would recommend this one to them though.  Hopefully I can snag a few bottles to put in the cellar and review it again in year!

Respect Beer.  Drink only the exceptional.

-Mike