Bells Cherry Stout

Pours a dark black color. The sunlight doesn’t even pass through it. There was a very small fizz for a few seconds, but not really much of a head. What was there was a dark tan color. The aroma is a dark chocolate coffee nose with a head of bitter chocolate. A little molasses mixed in with some dark fruits... maybe fig and black currant. The flavor is very smoky with a bitter burnt coffee characteristic, but also has a very sour cherry flavor to it. The malt sweetness and the cherry sourness don’t hit simultaneously, so it is almost as if they don’t meld that well. A nice texture. Leaves the burnt bitter flavor in the mouth.

VERY tart cherry flavor ending with a dark chocolate aftertaste. Pours black with brown head. This is another good beer from Bell’s!

Pours a dark fudge brown with a small, dense brown head that rings the glass. Aroma of chocolate covered cherries, small alcohol, small coffee, small roasted oats. Definitely sweet overtone to a normal stout, but hard to pick out cherries, more of a sweet, slightly bitter chocolate, which finishes roasty. Body isn’t quite there, but I know what they were going for.

Pours a dark black with a short-lived brown head and some lacing. Wonderful chocolate aroma, brown sugar, very sweet! Tastes very interesting - my notes are incomplete (tasted this a month ago) but I do remember it being like black forest cake, not like a cherry dunkel but more like a belgian stout, where you still have that odd cherry sour taste but it’s creamier than a strong ale or porter. Nice!

Underrated. Fantastic sweet, woody, smokey, chocolate, vanilla, varnish, coffee, roasty malt and subtle cherry aroma. Pours a very dark brown near black with a thin creamy beige head. So many flavors and yet so drinkable and balanced. Sweet sticky roasty coffee chocolate malts, some wood and smokiness, and tart tangy cherries that give it a Belgian like kick and complexity. Viscous syrupy body with a nice fluff. Now its time for some cellaring.

Rich in cherries. Rich in taste. Very sweet. A very underrated Bell’s. Not one I buy often since the wife isn’t into any fruit-ish beer.

Pours black with quickly dissipating, thin tan head. Aroma is chocolate, coffee, roasted malt with a bit of sweet fruit. Flavor waivers between a deep roasted stout and tart cherry juice, like a dark chocolate covered cherries. Mouthfeel is full and carbonation is great. Overall, the complex blend of tart cherry juice and roasted stout makes for an incredible brew.

Pours black with a quickly dissipating tan head. Delicious aroma of chocolate-covered cherries. Taste disappoints, though, with the tartness of the cherries at odds with rather than complimenting the sweet, roasty stout base. Body was a little thin as well. Perhaps the flavors will meld and temper more with age. (I also have a bottle of the bourbon barrel-aged version, which should be just the ticket.) Nice enough, but not worth the premium compared with other Bells offerings.