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Chicagoist's "Beer of the Week": Bell's Double Cream Stout

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Feb 21, 2007 5:00PM

2007_02_botw8.jpgYou're reading that headline correctly. A Bell's beer is this week's "BotW" selection. But don't get too excited. Larry Bell hasn't changed his mind and decided to start shipping his beer back to Illinois while we weren't looking. We just went to one of the few places we knew that still had an inventory of the beer. That should appease the cynics and set you off running to free them of it.

Anyway, we're on a sweeter stout kick lately, mainly because we like to remind ourselves that stouts aren't the sole domain of the Irish. Brewed with ten different roasted malts, few are as sweet or as heavy as Bell's Double Cream Stout. It pours like oil, dark and thick, with little carbonation and a rich head that teases spilling over the lip of the glass. You'll find coffee as the dominant scent on the nose, which intensifies as the beer warms to room temperature. Flavors in this beer include chocolate, caramel, coffee, and a nice roasted malt on the finish that reminds the drinker that this is a beer to be reckoned with. Again, this is a beer that's perfect with desserts and sweeter dishes.

Drinking this beer with yesterday's sour mash pancakes, we were struck by a certain sense of "out of sight, out of mind" regarding Bell's beer. It's an indictment on the antiquated guidelines of the 1982 Beer Industry Fair Dealing Act, but also a sign that, even without Bell's presence, there's enough variety in beer selection on store shelves throughout the city that the all the cries about "Bell's in the distance" were largely a big to do. Still, we regret that Larry Bell and the distributors could not work together so his beers could still be enjoyed in Illinois on a regular basis. We know Wisconsin, Indiana, and Kalamazoo are close enough for beer runs, but it isn't the same as walking through slush en route to the neighborhood tap and having a pint of Bell's beer. We don't even want to think about a summer without Oberon, though we're certain we'll survive. Bell's Double Cream Stout serves both as testament to Larry Bell's love of brewing and as a reminder that you don't know what you've got until it's gone. With that Cinderella reference, we're naming Bell's Double Cream Stout Chicagoist's "Beer of the Week" because we can.