Bells Cherry Stout

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

Serve in English pint

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   add pic

Well, the description says it will improve with cellaring. It;s tough to get much worse, so thats good. This beer has a rather sour aroma as well as hints of coffee in there as well. Pours a nearly opaque black with red-wine color twinges, especially on the edged. There was virtually no head, which was disappointing. It was tan but was gone in a heartbeat even with an aggressive pour. Start is very acidic and sour with hints of cherry. Unpleasant. Finishes watery and thin with coffee flavors. Way too sour and way too unbalanced.

nope. this stuff didn't work for me. and i LIKE cherries, i've enjoyed them for years, as well as stouts. but here the merging of these noble flavors has the effect of merging high speed frieght trains. it pours an auspicious enough red-tinged currant color. the foam haunts the edges of the glass, and like silent premonitions, there are sheer braille-like tiny dots of foam that probably are saying: "run away", but alas, i can't read braille. medium nose has ambiguity --or rather clever artful deception: it could be called a pleasantly chocolate-cherry confection with apple butter and alcohol--OR it could be sour pickle relish in an old shoe, depending upon the nose's acuity in ferreting out imposters and fraud. frankly, mine erred on the artifice of disguise-- until i tasted the beer. modest carbonation cajoles you to open the door by claiming to be delivering a box of sweet dark chocolates, but then suddenly simian hoodlums of metallic bitterness and burnt chicoried coffee burst in, spraying gummy cherry cough syrup all over the bare and delicate interior of the mouth. this sour bitterness discord of aspartame, pickled nails and gummy black malts actually increases 'till it's very unpleasant. i had to eat a jalopeno pepper just to cleanse my palate. like spinach salad with godiva chocolate dressing, a waste of quality ingredients.

This did not work for me. The cherries and dry stout taste did not mix well for me.

Bottle courtesy of Tpaliga: Poured a pitch-black color stout with a medium foamy head with low retention and no lacing. Aroma of roasted malt and coffee is quite dominant and interesting with some cherry notes also noticeable. Taste is a weird mix between roasted malt and cherry, which I don’t seem to agree with. I really don’t like the mix between the sweet cherries and roasted malt. Body is lighter then expected but still about average for the style.

Not what I expected and not impressed from a expensive six pack (18). Aroma was thin, coppery metalic. Apperance started out looking good but no head on the beer and the little there was dissapated fast. Almost no carbonation. On the palate I got nice coffe and slight sour cherries with a good dose of heavy roast malt. Overall a good cherry stout but not hardly worth the dough.

Sample at Bell’s brewery Eccentric Cafe. Aroma is chocolate, vanilla, light cherry. Appearance is jet black, tan head, vanilla, tart, light cherry taste, slightly sweet. Not that good for a sweet stout since it is so tart.

Bottle purchased in St. Louis. Pours black with a nice head. Aroma of toast, coffee, chocolate. The coffee, bitter chocolate and malty tastes are quickly overwhelmed by an excessive cherryness; not at all well balanced. Maybe I’m just not a fruit beer guy.

.. wow, very tart stuff .. smells of a put out cigar and roasted cherry skins .. black as an 8-ball .. way to big, a muddled mess, man, i loved the barrel aged version, but this i dont take to kindly too...

8870 Black pour with a small tan head. Sweet aroma of roasted malt and coffee. The flavor is what you would expect if someone spilled some Kool Aid in a dark roasty stout. The cherry tartness is something that sounds like it would put an added amount of complexity to this beer, but appears tacked on and doesn’t blend well at all. Sweet and malty at first, but opens up into a watered down cherry thing that becomes tart and leaves a small trace of a real stout in it’s wake. I didn’t care much for this, probably won’t drink again.

Almost completely opaque, a touch of light peeks through as dark brown at the edge. Faintest tint of red in the dark brown head. Aroma consists of a touch of chocolate, faint sour cherry, and a distinct aroma of the dying embers of a camp fire. Burnt flavors dominate, like someone jammed a piece of charcoal in your mouth. A bit of chocolate, and then a sour cherry twang on the finish that is totally disjointed from the rest of the beer. Strangely thin bodied, which I never would have expected from these folks. Just not my thing, and I had really thought I would like this. Thanks to Triple B 63 for the chance to sample.