Bell's Black Note Stout

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

C: Coca-Cola, light edges, weak foamy head
A: Bourbon, Coffee, vanilla
P: Medium-Full, creamy
F: dark coffee, bourbon, soy sauce
O: Tried it twice, still wondering what the fuss is

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

A dark brown pour with a dark brown head. The aroma is typical of many barrel aged stouts with alcohol, roasted malt, coffee, and vanilla. Very smooth, goes down easy. Nothing outstanding here from a flavour perspective again with typical coffee, roast, and bourbon flavours.

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 10

Comes out of the tap a rich sable just a whisker above black with a dark, chocolaty tan head. Roast malt aroma has an overtone of bourbon-soaked wood and subtle notes of coffee, caramel and licorice. Flavor begins with a strong bourbon note and then blossoms with roast malt, quality coffee, semi-sweet chocolate, caramel, licorice, toffee and molasses. It is quite sweet, but not nasty; bourbon bite helps offset the sweetness. Mouthfeel is silky smooth and quite viscous, with an appreciable and persistent tingle. I have been chasing this beer for months, narrowly missing it at stores and getting no response from trade offers - and now I have finally scored this delectable brewski. Worth the wait!

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 10 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 10

12oz bottle -

This beer reminds me in many delicious ways of Kate the Great. The body is black ink with light brown creamy head. The aroma is just crazyinsane. Vanilla syrup, figs, vinous, light alcohol, raisins, and something that reminds me of a Hot Toddy...kinda buttery/butterscotch but deeper. Flavors explode on the palate and the complexity rivals that of the best wines I've had. Dark chocolate, mocha, vanilla, bread pudding...it's almost like a bread pudding mixed with maple oatmeal mixed with bourbon then a splash of kahlua. The sweetness is there, but it's reeled in and only harmonizes with the other flavors. Are more sweet, it might be a big mess. Any less sweet, and the flavors wouldn't mingle as well. A world class beer.

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

I get this box, with three beers, out of the blue from heybeerman. One of the beers is Black Note. I so owe heybeerman now... TO the beer: mahogany black pour, very tight tan head, massive lacing throughout. Richly roasted malt aroma with big oak and wood both in the nose and initial palate, light bourbon, not overwhelming at all, dark molasses and some maple, more roasted malts, just a damn fine beer. I SOOOoooo owe you Greg - HUGE thanks!

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

A customer brought this by yesterday. I was pretty stoked to try this beer as the hype has been very high. Tasty shtuff. Booze isn't concealed well, still pretty hot. Big chocolate and rich caramel notes. Plum, espresso, lots of good flavors. Not sure it's worth anything over a 4.2 but I dig it.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 9

1st off, big thanks to Heybeerman for steppin up and sending me this gem. Split a bottle 3 1/2 ways last night, and will probably revisit when I have a full bottle, by itself, one day soon. My original impression, just from the the aroma was that this was leaning slightly more towards the Double Cream Stout than Expedition, and that turned out to be true in the flavor as well. But both beers are there, giving this a nice rich body, and layers of complexity. The barreling was also a little more prevelant than expected. I really have to nit pick to find anything "wrong" with this beer, but if I had to say something, gimmea tiny bit more expedition and a tiny bit less barrel, and this bad boy may get a perfect 5. Sooooooo smooth and tasty. Held it's own with a nice batch of Speedway and BA Speedway, two of my favorites.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 10 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 10

Everything I was hoping it would be. Had it next to GI BCS and several others in the field and Black Note by far had the best aroma of any of them. It's very soy forward and the Expedition Stout definitely dominates the nose but the creamy butteryness of Double Cream is softly present at the end and the whole bouquet is tied together with a nice smooth oaky vanilla. As far as visual, it looks nearly exactly like all the others, deep brown with thin wispy head that doesn't last. The flavor seems to have more Double Cream than Expedition, but the ratio is just perfect whatever it is. This is a stout forward beer where GI is nearly all bourbon with a little stout. The bourbon and oak are present but do not dominate the roast and anise, its aged so well that every flavor just blends seemlessly together. This is just a perfectly made beer and I couldn't be more impressed. I could just smell this stuff all day its so good. Having it next to all the others really made this stand out, BCS is an awesome bourbon beer without question but this is the best stout I have ever had.

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 10 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Pitch black color with a tan head. The aroma contains espresso, chocolate, licorice, dark fruit, and burbon. Flavor is rather bitter with espresso, dark chocolate, burbon, licorice, some raisins. The burbon is definitely there but does not overwhelm. Overall excellent damn beer. And KP showed up.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Bells brought this in for Pittsburgh Craft Beer week. The pub that served it was packed with those of us anxiously awaiting to sample this, a brewery only rarity that had been recently bottled in an event that only served to ramp up populatiry. Draft pour was thick, milkshake like viscosity, with suprisingly more carbonation than expected. The nose was composed of chocolate, coffee, and an earthy nutlike undertone. The taste was amazingly complex, one of the more interesting flavors I've tasted in a BA stout - harsh tannins, oak, vanilla, coffee, nutmeg, and walnuts are all noted. This is a blend of Double Cream and Expedition, which explains the viciousness of the pour. Wonderful stuff, would love to try again. Updating Review: 2012 bottle into a snifter, deep midnight with thick viscosity and little carbonation. Strong vanilla aromas are met with earty malt undertone. Upping the aroma quite a bit as it's WAY more intriguing than I remember. Creamy mouthfeel with ample carbonation but a tad thin. Bourbon forward with dominant flavors of oak, vanilla, and alcohol phenols. Notes of walnuts, coffee, chocolate, and burnt toast.