Kalamazoo Stout Review: Try This Beer Rich in Chocolatey Flavors 

Kalamazoo Stout is always a great choice if you’re looking for a delicious stout from Bell’s Brewery. The beer offers a sweet blend of dark chocolate and coffee flavors with a hint of licorice and hops.

The perfect winter brew, the Kalamazoo beer is a nice American stout that balances the sweetness of the chocolate and the malt roast. Our Kalamazoo beer review covers all you need to know about drinking this stout.

Kalamazoo Stout Stats

Tasting Notes

Kalamazoo Stout Review

The Kalamazoo beer is an American stout with a 6 percent alcohol content and strong flavors of chocolate and coffee. Offering a very nice roast character, the sweet beer is perfect for the winter months, with slight hops character and a sweet finish.

You can enjoy the Kalamazoo beer when served in a pint glass, snifter, goblet, or chalice, with temperatures from 45 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The stout is best when served warm, and you can garnish it with vodka, coffee liqueur, and a wedge of lime.

The stout has a black body, a thick carbonated feel, and plenty of coffee notes in the aftertaste. A perfect example of an American stout, the beer is highly drinkable and easy to drink, and you can savor the beer with the licorice notes as it warms.

– Appearance

The Kalamazoo beer has a deep black color expected from a stout. With the foamy tan head, the beer’s aroma is continually enhanced. The head has poor retention and quickly dissipates, leaving some lacing against the glass.

– Aroma

On the nose, the American stout has a strong aroma of dark roasted malts, true to its nature. This is balanced with molasses and a dark chocolate scent that gives you a sweet smell. You might also notice hints of licorice and coffee in the aroma of the Kalamazoo beer.

– Mouthfeel

As for the mouthfeel, the Kalamazoo beer has a medium body, leaning towards a thick body. The thick and smooth mouthfeel will feel great against your tongue and offers moderate carbonation, although this is not obvious in its appearance. It also does not have a boozy feeling on your tongue.

– Flavor

The flavor of the Kalamazoo beer follows the aroma, with a strong taste of roasted dark malts, molasses, and dark chocolate. Its chocolatey flavor is the first thing you taste, with hints of coffee giving you a balanced character.

There are also slight hints of licorice in the flavor and some hops on the back end of the taste. The Kalamazoo beer has slight nuttiness in the taste, contributing to the complex flavor.

Tasting like cold coffee and cocoa with slight tobacco notes, the beer tastes even better as it warms up. But the coffee and chocolate flavors don’t take away from the beer character. Even with the dessert character, it tastes like real beer with the bready malts and caramel in the backbone.

– Food Pairings

The Kalamazoo beer can be paired well with roasted foods as the meaty sweetness goes well with the chocolate. Other delicious food pairings include smoked, salty, barbecued, grilled, and braised dishes. It goes well with oysters and rich stews, as long as the beer is sweeter than the dish.

You can have the Kalamazoo brew with bar nuts, French fries, and roasted peanuts if you want some snacks. Chocolate-flavored desserts are also a good pairing with this stout, including chocolate cake or mousse.

As for cheese, the Kalamazoo brew adds a sweet and roasty balance to pungent cheeses like Silton and Maytag Bleu. The stronger the cheese, the more the hoppy flavors of the beer come out.

Ingredients

The Kalamazoo stout was made with five main ingredients: water, malt, hops, house ale yeast, and gelatin-free brewer’s licorice. The brewers have also stated that the beer is vegan-friendly since they don’t use animal-derived process aids or isinglass to make their beers.

The hoppy flavor is not prominent, and the barley and brewing process adds the chocolate and coffee flavors to the beer.

Nutrition Facts

The Kalamazoo Stout has a 6 percent ABV and 51 IBU, so you can expect some bitterness from this beer that balances well with the sweetness of the chocolate flavor. The ABV does not make it boozy, so you can enjoy the authentic beer taste.

The beer has 221 calories in every 12-ounce serving, which is pretty high. Health-conscious drinkers should consider this when calculating their dietary intake. The beer also has 22.5 grams of carbs, which is not suitable for those on a keto diet. The beer is not gluten-friendly but is vegan-friendly.

History

Bell’s Brewery brewed the Kalamazoo Stout. It was named after Kalamazoo city, where the brewery began before becoming one of the top choices in the city. It is also one of the classic recipes from the brewery.

One of the year-round beers, the Kalamazoo brew, can be enjoyed anytime from the brewery. Bell’s is a popular Michigan-based brewery, popular for its delicious brews like No, Yeah Beer, and Two-Hearted Ale. Since it was founded in 1985 by Larry Bell, the brewery has operated a brewpub and a store selling merchandise and supplies for homebrewing in Kalamazoo.

Conclusion

The Kalamazoo Beer is a fantastic example of the American stout, offering a good balance of chocolate and coffee with hints of licorice and molasses. Here is a rundown of what we covered in our review:

• The Kalamazoo Beer is an American stout with a 6 percent ABV, made by Bell’s Brewing.
• The beer has flavors and aromas of chocolate, coffee, milk, molasses, licorice, and caramel.
• It is brewed with water, hops, malt, house ale yeast, and licorice.
• You can enjoy it best in a pint glass with a lime wedge or chocolate liqueur.
• The beer pairs well with grilled, smoked, fried, barbecued foods, chocolate desserts, and strongly flavored cheeses.

You can enjoy the Kalamazoo beer by purchasing it at liquor stores, online stores, or by visiting the brewery in Michigan to get it directly from the tap.