Bells Cherry Ale

Formerly brewed at Bells Brewery
Style: Fruit Beer
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Serve in Flute

Poured a murky brown color with a minimal off-white head. The aroma is of tart cherry and earthy but sweet malt. Mildly tart cherry with a mild caramel malt. Light body.

Sample at the Bell’s tasting at Brews Cafe on 3/6/08: The beer pours a luminous red color with a medium thin off-white head that dissipates steadily. Spotty lacing. Aroma of tart cherries and wheat. Medium, clean body with dark cherry and bready malt flavors. The finish is fruity with lingering cherry aftertaste. Might suffer from the recent New Glarus Fruit beers I have had, but not bad overall.

On tap. Pours a pretty burnt orange color with a small white head. Aroma is not as strong in cherry as I’d imagined it would be. They are still definitely there but a lot of malt aromas are there too. This doesn’t smell too promising, kind of reminds me of a lot of bad fruit beers I’ve had. Cherries are tart and light, malts are biscuity. Flavor is slightly tart, watery, very thin bodied and quite bland. I was glad I got to try this but it’s certainly not one of Bell’s better beers.

Almost winey scent, without a lot of outstanding aroma. As soon as you taste it though, wow. Same tart cherries as the stout. Refreshing fruit flavor, but doesn’t stay with you very long. Great for the summer with a slight alcohol sting at the end.

On tap. Better than Sam Adams cherry wheat, if thats saying anything. Is pretty light and fruity, and not heavy-sweet. Unfortunately it more or less reminds me of generic beer with grenadine in it. Worth a try once.

12 ounce bottle. I didn’t know they still brewed this light offering. Orangish-pink with foamy, soapy white head. Light body with upfront cherry tartness. Malts do shine through, but similar to their raspberry ale, the fruit makes it quite one-dimensional. Nose is cherry, wheat and grass. Finish is light, tangy.

On tap at the Eccentric Cafe. Body is a nice reddish amber and there was not a lot of head on the pour. Aromas are strong and tart cherries dominate the nose. Taste is heavily dominated by the tart cherry presence, but it is held in check by enough malt to make this seem like a fruit beer rather than a wine cooler. I don’t know that I’d want to drink more than one since the flavors get a bit overwhelming after a while, but as an occassional treat, it was decent.

12oz - batch 6898 packaged on June 6, 2005 - OK, this is a low rated, low alcohol brew that is almost 2 years old. My expectations are not very high and they shouldn’t be. Aroma of dirty rusty water with some cherry syrup mixed in. Pours clear ruby red with a ring head and decent lacing. Flavor is similar to aroma, very mettalic and nasty. Palate is sticky. Not very good at all. My first drain pour from Bells ever and I have been drinking their beer for 15 years.