Bells Cherry Stout

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

Very pretty pour. Aroma is of coffee and cherries. Nice heavy mouth feel but taste is a little too much like cough syrup for me to drink much more than a bottle.

Pours a gorgeous raven-black with decent tan head that diminishes quickly. Nice expletive tan lacing. Nose is surprisingly mild with subtle notes of chocolately malt and coffee. Flavors continue to be subtle in the mouth with mild cherry, more chocolate malt, French-press coffee, roasted toasted toast, and a slight sour finish. Medium carbonation and full-bodied. Not bad. Very easy drinking. Finishes a little dry, but very clean. I enjoy sour fruit flavors with robust maltiness, when in balance. Flavors--although subtle--blend well here.

12 oz bottle. Pours black, tiny tan head. Smells great... milk chocolate and cherries. Not overwhelming with the cherries though... just enough to give it a sweet fruitiness. Flavor... eh. Surprisingly thin. More cherry flavor, less chocolate. Also, a little bit of the "vegetable soup" flavor that overwhelmed their rye stout for me. I thought this was because the rye stout was old, but this is a fresh batch of cherry stout and it’s the same. (Haven’t noticed this in any other beer but Bells rye and cherry stouts.) Odd. It’s okay, but not a favorite for me.

12oz bottle, batch 8144. Pours very dark black with a bubbly dark brown head that doesn’t stick around too long. Aroma is chocolate, roasty, with a substantial cherry component. The cherry mixes in well with the stout characteristics to give this a dessert like quality. Nice. The first thing I notice in the taste is the tartness of the cherries. Instantly hits your tongue and makes an impression. Acidic, tart, strong cherry flavor follows ending finally with some normal chocolate like stout taste in the finish. Not off-putting but I think the cherry goes a little overboard in the taste whereas in the aroma it is a nice balanced aspect. Still, if you’re looking for a cherry flavored stout I can’t see how you could do wrong here. The tart, acidic quality of the cherries makes the mouthfeel a bit thinner than desired. Overall an interesting if not completely successful beer.

pours as close to pitch black without being pitch black. Long lasting tan head with a slight red-ish hue. Malty chocolate aroma. Bittersweet mouthfeel some roast, and a sour cherry finish.

Smallish dark-brown-greige head; near-black beer with a ruby-purple shine. Sweetish coffee nose with indistinct fruity aroma’s. First very fruity-sweet, then dry roasted coffee, with a sourish ending, quite fruity again, near roasted-stoutlike wheatsourness. Absolutely surprising perfect balance sweet-sourish-bitterish. Quite well-bodied, nice acidic tonguelining. Another excellent Bell’s product - all the more surprising as I was dreading the outcome. Chapeau! Thanks, DaveDave!

Bottle from EithCubes - Thanks! Pours a dark brown with a modest tan head. Nose is heavy with roast and coffee, hints of chocolate and cherries. Taste becomes mellower with the roasted malt and coffee, the sensation of chocolate covered cherries begins to take over. Nice example of the fruit enhanced stout, but is lighter bodied than I’d hoped for. Perhaps it could be stouter?

What a nice beer to sit down on a cool fall night and enjoy. Very dark and roasty pour, with a smell of coffee and cherrys. Taste of dark cholocate and a cherry finish. Very good all around, warms the mind and body