Bell's Black Note Stout Review

Name: Bell's Black Note Stout
Style: Imperial Stout
ABV: 11.5%

So this weekend, I'll be pretty busy. Between the new apartment hunt and The Duluth Experience North Shore Craft Beer Roundtable. Needless to say, I have a few irons in the fire. In anticipation of my busy schedule, I'm going to get a couple reviews out of the way.

To start out, I've got a somewhat hard-to-find beer due to it's limited quantity (or so I'm led to believe) Bell's Black Note Stout; An Imperial Stout aged in Bourbon Barrels. From that I understand, this beert usually gets released in the Springtime.

Black Note Stout pours a pitch black with a thin brown head that fades away after a couple minutes. The lacing left behind is also rather sparse.

The nose starts out with a nice aroma of bourbon, oak, chocolate malts and vanilla before ending with a nice roasted barley scent.

Flavor-wise, it starts out very chocolate malt and oak forward. The tail end of the flavor gives off a nice vanilla-bourbon taste and finishing off with some malty & roasted barley notes.

The overall palate is fairly heavy body and comes with some mild carbonation; Giving it a nice creamy texture which helps add to the overall drinkability.

If you're willing to shell out a couple extra bucks, you'll find this to be an excellent & vibrant tasting Imperial Stout. On top of that, you can tell that the barrel aging has done wonders for the quality of the flavor and that alone is worth checking out.

Bell's Black Note Stout - 9.25/10