Bells Cherry Stout

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

Ah, the first chill of autumn is in the air and a thick rich beer like this starts to seem appealing. This bottle’s about a year old, and some of the underlying roasts of the stout have abated, which is a shame. The fresher bottles were more notable for the contrast between this feature and the deep, dark cherries. But it’s definitely still a dillie, nice and dark, with sweet subtleties in the finish.

on tap - philadelphia - I wonder if this keg has turned. at first try, it tasted like vinegar and wet newspaper. i thought maybe it was a bad pour - maybe left in the line and sent it back. tried it a few days later and just could not get past the vinegar sourness. if there were any chocolate flavors they were lost in the medicinal, vinegar cardboard flavors.

Served on draft with a thin and waning head. The aroma was more sour than expected with some bitter dark chocolates supporting the sour cherry. The taste was tart and bitter with a warmer alcoholic layer in the mouth at the finish. The low carbonation keeps this lingering in the mouth just as it keeps is clinging to the sides of the glass. Good overall beer, better for desserts.