I’ve had a lot of beer in my life. I’ve traveled to four countries, thirty-three US states, and countless cities, and I appear to have found one of the finest beers I’ve ever tasted in my own backyard, Phoenix. Bell’s Brewery hails from Kalamazoo, Michigan, but one of Phoenix’s legendary local breweries, Papago Brewery (recently ranked 13th best beer bar in the world by RateBeer), had several of their beers chilling in their fridge waiting for a new owner. After marveling in the wonder that was HopSlam, Beersurfing was curious about their other beers and Papago certainly delivered.
Bell Brewery's Expedition Stout
On the recommendation of a couple of friends from Michigan, we picked out a bottle of Expedition Stout. It turned out to be a fantastic choice. The Expedition Stout’s nose initially hits you with intonations of beef stock and summer sausage and absolutely no indication that it’s even a beer. I poured half a glass for my roommate, noting that it poured pitch black with the consistency of ink, with a very thick and creamy looking head. This beer only got better as I evaluated its finer points – as noted above, the beer imparts aromas of sausage and beef, along with subtler hints of celery and even some soy sauce. Its flavor profile is exceedingly complex, so complex that you’ll never quite identify every member of the party that just arrived on your taste buds – cloves, concentrated beer malt, and even salt dominate the taste along with a plethora of others. You don’t even notice the 10.5% of alcohol that is there – it’s masked that well. The Expedition Stout is buttery smooth, barely bubbly, and exceptionally sippable even for a stout. You definitely don’t want to drink this in gulps – the Expedition Stout wants and deserves to be sipped, and you’ll enjoy every last savory morsel of it. I made sure to suck the bottle dry!
Expedition Stout
The Expedition Stout is among the finest stouts in the world and is rated exceptionally high on most websites, including Beer Advocate and Rate Beer. The crème de la crème of beefy beers, the Expedition Stout is sophisticated, overwhelmingly complex, and just plain incredible. I’m simply at a loss of words to describe it any better, and like most of Bell’s beers, it’s not terribly uncommon the closer you get to Michigan. For such an outstanding beer, the price point was very reasonable – while I can’t speak for the rest of the world, Phoenicians can find the Expedition Stout for about $3 for a 12oz bottle at Papago Brewery in Scottsdale. Thanks to Sarah and Andrew for the tip!
Trackbacks/
Pingbacks