Appearance – Pours a very opaque black color with a tan head that was gone before you knew it.

Smell – Sweet milk chocolate hits the nose at first with some hints of coffee, vanilla and heavy cream.

Taste – Roasted malts up front followed by sweet chocolate with a slight milky cream flavor.

This is listed as a winter beer in Bell’s rotation but my local beer store just got some more of this in so I figured why not pick it up.  Nice all around brew with a good aroma and solid taste.  Not as good as the Kalamazoo Stout I recently had from them but still pretty good.  Bell’s is starting to be a pretty reliable brewery to me.

Overall Grade – B+

Appearance – Poured a deep black color with a tannish head.

Smell – Chocolate is the first smell to hit my nose with some roasted notes in the back.

Taste – Very nice mixture of chocolate and roasted malts with some toffee and coffee flavors in there as well.

I’ve heard ravings about this beer plenty of times before so I went for it and was not disappointed.  I was surprised by how prominent the chocolate smells and flavors were in this one.  I expected it to be more over baring on the coffee tastes but that was just slightly in the background.  A very good stout here.

Overall Grade – A-