Cherry Stout

Very dark maroon with no head and no lacing to speak of. Aroma of chocolate, cocoa and roasted coffee. Flavor begins with sweet malt and caramel, then progresses to chocolate. Cherries come in rather suddenly near the finish, a pleasant surprise. Medium body. Good one, very drinkable.

Bottle. Pours black with a thin brown head that had a bit of a red hue. A sweet malty stout with notes of sweet milk, caramel and some sweet biscuits. Not much cherry on the nose, perhaps a slight tart note. Flavor begins with sweet malts, but finishes with a nice tart cherry flavor.

Location: 12 oz bottle from ? (I don't remember), 4/29/12

Aroma: The nose has some roasted malts, wood, and some sour fruit
Appearance: It pours a dark brown-black color with a small head
Flavor: The taste is fairly sour, with some sweet and roasted notes
Palate: The body is medium-plus, with a lively carbonation, and a tingly mouthfeel
Overall Impression: Three plus years after I rated this one on cask, I guess it could use an update from the bottle version. This beer was more roasty in the nose and more sour in the flavor, but otherwise the components translated similarly. Anyway, I enjoyed it, but perhaps not quite as much as I did back in '09 when I had it on cask. (7/4/7/3/15)

Location: Cask at Capital Ale House, 12/26/09

Aroma: It has a nose of cherries (obviously), along with some chocolate, coffee
Appearance: Out of the cask, this one came a brown color with a slight red hue
Flavor: Taste has some slightly sweet maltiness up-front, but it has a big sour finish
Palate: The body is medium with a nice, dry finish
Overall Impression: Overall, I enjoyed this beer quite a bit. It worked really well from the cask, and the nose is quite open and powerful in this serving method. Very nice. (8/4/7/4/15)

Bottle. Coffee, cherry and a hint of chocolate aroma. Dark chocolate color with a thin tan head. A slight coffee flavor overpowered by sour cherry. I’m not a fan of anything cherry, so I didn’t find this very appealing.

Pours black with brown head. Aroma of burnt malts and cherries. Sweet roasty flavor with a tart cherry finish. Slightly ashy to it. Full body with mild carbonation. This is the first Bells beer that I didn’t want to have again.

Bottle, The Den, Kalamazoo. Black colour, medium beige head. Aroma of roasted malts, smoke, cherry and chocolate. Flavour of toasted malts, smoke, sour cherry, with chocolate and coffee cream. Nice one.

12 oz bottle. Pours black with a medium tan head. Aroma consists of a cherry aroma folded into an overall dark fruit impression, backed by a bit of chocolate and vanilla. Cherry aroma becomes more distinct after a couple sniffs. Flavor is overwhelming cherry, somewhat sweet and tart, that gives something of a strange medicinal flavor at first. Finishes with chocolate and coffee. You know, at first I didn’t think this worked, but about halfway through the glass it turned into a fairly interesting beer. This is definitely the kind of thing I’d have to be in the mood for, but it’s actually pretty nice.