Bells Cherry Stout

12oz bottle, batch 8144. Pours pitch black, topped with a thin brown head. Roasted chocolate malt aroma with some tart cherry. Tart cherry aroma flavor at first, then is joined by cocoa. Long, slightly tart finish with some vegetal notes. Cherry adds nice accents to this stout.

12 oz bottle

I picked up a bottle of this in Kalamazoo after not finding anything interesting on tap (and Dark Horse just down the road). The bottle was from batch 8144. It is more stout than cherry but the two play nicely against each other. Bell’s has a nice offering on their hands here that you should try if you run across it.

Aroma / Appearance - The black body was close in appearance to that of Expedition Stout including the lacing. A suede head roughly a half-finger in height sat on top. Black cherries, expresso and dark chocolate reminded me of a mixture of Belgian Red and a Top 50 Imperial Stout. For some reason the smell of black olives was strong after a while.

Flavor / Palate - The first sip filled my mouth with supreme pizza (specifically black olives and pepperoni). Smoke, licorice and burnt malts sweep across the throat on the second taste. Finally cherries complete the experience as they come out towards the end of the glass. The combination is more stout than fruit beer and totally different than New Glarus’ take on a cherry stout. If I were ever to slow down exploring new beers I wouldn’t mind giving this a try again.

Bottle. Pours black with a small but lasting tan head that leaves good lacing. Aroma of roasted malt, cherries, and caramel. Taste is tart cherries, chocolate, and coffee. Medium full mouthfeel with a moderate amount of bitterness and a tart cherry finish. Very good.

The aroma was strong roast with chocolate and a estery fruit presence which was nice. The fruity aromas were dark in nature, but not discernible as cherries. Dark chocolate and espresso roast coupled with caramel were very well done. The beer poured into the glass black with a brown short lived head which did trace at the glass. The flavor was tart with a definite sour cherry presence and strong dark chocolate and some espresso nature. The finish came in immediately dry with tart cherry flavors lasting well into the aftertaste. The beer was quite bitter and really had no middle, only an initial impression of chocolate and then the finish. The body was medium-full and the carbonation was a bit low. An ok brew, but certainly not a favorite. 12 ounce bottle. Batch 8152.

Creamy vanilla on the nose, with hints of chocolate and cherries. Pours dark brown pretty much black with a thick tan head, that does not last long. Tart cherries, with a slight sweet cherry flavor, with loads of chocolate, hints of coffee, and creamy vanilla. Very smooth. I like it more this time than the first time i tried it.

I don’t know if the cherry flavor had dropped out on this beer or not, but I got more traditional "stout" character out of this beer than any fruit flavored "cherry" character. I had received my bottle via a trade (as I do all my Bells, since Bells doesn’t distribute to California....a shame) and had been sitting on it for about a year, so I’m thinking this bottle is 18-24 months old. Anyways, I was quite disappointed in the overall quality of this beer. I love K-zoo and Expedition but this beer seemed to be like an experiment gone wrong...and they bottled it anyways. The beer pours out black with a one-finger dark tan head, big bubbles with little to no lacing. Aroma had little to offer, with subtle notes of coffee, a touch of bakers chocolate and a strange sourness that reminded me a bit of sour cream. Mouthfeel was on the thin side and a bit overly carbonated. Flavor carried that same sourness, like a lactic sourness almost. Some coffee and chocolate notes are present too, but unfortunately I was expecting some cherries to make an appearance somewhere in this beer and it just didn’t happen. Perhaps the sourness was supposed to be taken as sour cherries, but I didn’t think so. It just made it difficult to enjoy, which I really didn’t.

Bottle thanks to NachlamSie. This pours like used motor oil. The first thing I noticed was how the brew glistens. It even looks oily. The tan head was quickly diminishing and had wimpy lacing. The aroma seemed not to be too strong. Even after swirling this furiously, I had some difficulty trying to pick out the aroma. I can smell some hints of cherries, of course. There are some dry, smoked qualities as well. Some cocoa lingers around. Eh, I’ve spent long enough trying to pick out the weak aroma. Now for the taste test. Very... very... very citrusy. As it hits the tongue, the citrusy cherry flavour instantly bursts. As the beer leaves your taste buds, the citrus lingers on for some time. An oily residue coats your tongue and seems to let the citrus bite persist. As the saliva washes that away, the citrus qualities diminish. Smoked qualities creep in with subtle molasses and cocoa flavours. At the finish, the smoked qualities become the dominant flavour with cherries falling far behind. This is... interesting. A good "interesting." Generally, it’s like you’ve eaten steak with cherries on top. (Okay, that sounds gross.) As weird as it is, I like it. But then again, I tend to like some very weird things.

Let me begin by saying I generally dislike fruity beers. This beer is so good, I’m now making a serious reconsideration on that prejudice. Enjoy this beer with chocolate cake or ice cream!