Bell's Batch 10,000

Here's a story. And it's not of a lovely lady. It's of me, and a beer. What, that's not enough? Come on…

I've been drinking the Bell's 1000 batch series since 5000. Don't know if any of the others were ever in our market, but that was the first one I noticed, back in, back in, what? 2002? It was the first beer I tried to cellar for any length of time, as per brewery recommendations, and I managed to make the last bottle last about a year and a half.

Subsequent 1000-batch brews have been harder to cellar, especially as beer geekdom grows and the avarice heightens. The rare ones go quicker. I don't manage to make it out to the store as soon as the trucks hit the parking lot, and tend not to get many bottles to save. But I have gotten kegs of this series since 6K, and the final one in the series, (due the fact that this thousand-batch mark is easier and swifter to reach, and therefore less special), Batch 10,000, well, we got one 8-gallon keg at the Nile back in January and I manage to hold on to it until yesterday.

And here starts another part of our story. What profits the beer -geek bar-manager to tap a keg he cannot drink?

It is Minnesota Craft Beer week (as well as American Craft Beer Week, don't ask, I don't care to go into it)…and I chose the occasion of this Saturday, the 14th, yesterday, to finally tap the batch 10K keg I'd been sitting on all these months. But, meanwhile, I'd never even seen it on sale anywhere and had no opportunity to pick up case, 6-pack or bottle. What if I'd tapped it right at open, and the beer fans roared in, I worried whether I'd even get to drink one. Sure, I tasted some when I tapped it, but I didn't have enough to get intimate with it. Throughout the day people asked me to describe it, and I was tempted to point at someone else, and say, "ask him, he's drinking it." I rarely tap a beer I've never had, and this was a unique experience when I hadn't had time to formulate an opinion. I'd thought about tapping it the night before, but there just wasn't enough time then, either.

The event was advertised to take place from 4-9 pm, and as soon as 9 o'clock struck, I took the keg off tap. Disappointed a few people who came late, but, you know, snooze, lose, that equation.

Is this my 300th post? Well, let's let it be Bell's Batch 10, 000.

So, I rolled in tonight, hooked up the keg, and just under a pitcher was left. And I'm going to drink it now. What's left, I'll share with co-workers…so, here goes…

Deep, dark appearance, kind of a plummy brown, small, cocoa-tinged head, slim, but staying.

Aroma: chocolate at first, raisin and plum, dark malty goodness. Richness aplenty, but not too sweet. Wonderfully balanced. Delightful.

Taste: easy entry on the palate, with a charge of cocoa, dark, sweet, caramel and chocolate malt behind. Some vanilla and oak hints emerge, some bourbon tints, flaked chocolate, Sweetness is rising. At first it tastes like a stout, even an Imperial Stout, and now the flavors of a barley-wine, or old ale come rushing in. We're getting more prune, now, some date, some raisin, and more sourness, and higher alcohol feeling.

This is clearly a hybrid between a strong stout and an old ale, with no one side taking over. I kind of like that. No. wait…I really like it.

A little licorice, some char, deep woodiness, dark malt….the 5 months it's aged have mellowed it well. Mmmm, it's nice.

I'm finishing it up right now. Mmmm. Yes. Oh, wait, one more word: ahhhhh…..