Bells Cherry Stout

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Sweet Stout
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

12 oz. Opaque black with a medium sized head. Earthy and fruity red wine aroma. Flavor is woody smoke, tart fruit, sour cream and slight alcohol. Medium bodied and mostly smooth.

Bottle; according to Bells website, this one is almost 2 years old. Pours black with a thin creamy reddish-brown head that diminishes to a ring around the edge of the glass. The aroma is a nice dark roasted malt with a solid black cherry backing and a light coffee note as well. Pretty nice; it reminds me of the black cherry chocolate sauce I picked up in Chicago a couple years ago. Medium to full-bodied and quite slick with a tart and sour bitter -oasted finish. The flavor is a major drop-off from the nose, making me think this bottle may be past its prime. Big tart cherry front the flavor profile transitioning into the roasted malts that matched well in the aroma but just don’t work at all for me in the flavor. Fairly sour and astringent, this is not what I was hoping for in this beer. It’ll probably be quite a while before I’m compelled to drop $13 to see if this bottle was past its prime or if this odd combination of flavors was what Bells intended.

Bottle. Part 3 of 4 of my Bell’s stout-fest, and my least favorite so far. Pours black with, obviously, a cherry aroma. The taste is very sour cherry at the start that devolves into a very mediocre porter. Hard to drink, as the taste at the end of the bottle was more barbecue sauce than anything,

Pours with a reddish tint, but after pour is complete, its pretty much brown/black. Aroma is light sweet cherry with some hints of burnt malt. Flavor hits with cherries up front, then softens out with hints of tobacco near the finish. The finish is very abrupt; somewhat disappointing. I will caveat that I’m not a huge fan of cherries, but this was far from the best I’ve had from the folks at Bell’s, but I’ll get another bottle and cellar it for a while...maybe a re-rate in the years to come...

From notes made last winder: Short head, very dark brown. COffe/sweet aroma. The cherry comes through mostly as a cherry-pit flavor for me with a long, though not powerful, finish that i really liked.

10/16/07 On Draft at the Comet: -Pours a very dark brown in color. Has a nice half inch thick head that is mocha in color. Very nice looking beer. Smell is subtle chocolate covered cherries. Taste is much the same. I was told this came from a keg that was about a year old. The cherries were much more subdued than fresh. Full on flavor and mouthfeel. This is a great beer at a year old. 10/16/07 Bottle of 2003(no neck or back label) -Pours a very dark brown with no head. Smell is cherries and some port. Very smooth and delicious. Hardly any oxidation that I could detect. This is a very good reminder on why we age some beers. This is the perfect example.

Batch 8144

10/14/2007: Bell’s Cherry Stout pours a near black, coffee brown color with a tinge of a reddish hue. The foamy brown head doesn’t last very long, but does leave some mild lacing. The aroma is mostly chocolate with a bit of yeast in it as well. The flavor is chocolate at first and then some sour cherry begins in the middle and accompanies the chocolate flavor through the finish. The two flavors blend together fairly well but seem a bit off-balanced. There is also quite a bit of roasted malt in the flavor and some char in the finish and after taste. Maybe a little less cherry would be better. That way the cherry was in the background more rather than up front challenging the chocolate and dark malt flavors. I usually like cherry, but it doesn’t seem to work all that great with really darkly roasted malt and char flavors. This beer has a medium to medium-full body and is smooth on the palate. Overall this is a good stout, but one bottle is more than enough per sitting.

12 fl. oz. oz bottle. Rating #577 for this beer...

Pours black with light brown head. Head diminishes quickly. Aroma has a slight sweetness. Body medium. Taste is tart. There is also a bit of Acidity. Little aftertasts. I was hoping for more cherry and definetly more roasted malt.