Bells Cherry Stout

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

Pours nice and dark with thin mocha head and just a little bit of spotty lacing. The aroma is nice and roasty along with burnt malts and chocolate. To go along with the malts is a fruity cherry sourness. The taste starts with a rich roasted maltiness medley of malts like sweet malts, chocolate malts and roasty malts. Before the maltiness can be reconciled cherry fruitiness joins the fray with sort of a sour tart cherriness that becomes less sweet and more and more tart as the taste progresses toward midway where it levels off. Into the finish the maltiness overtakes the fruity tartness with roastiness, hints burnt malts, chocolate malts and coffee.

The appearance is solid black, not as thick as Guinness. Even without intentionally taking a scent, I can sense the aroma, which is indeed cherry and stout. The cherry taste is not overpowering at all, and the stout taste comes through. There’s some nut flavor as well. The palate is nothing special, but who cares, this is a great beer and one I’ll definitely want to drink again.

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.

12 oz bottle thanks to my SS. Pours a black brwon with a thin head. Coffee aroma yeast chocolate a hint of fruit. Creamy smooth body leads to cherry chocolate and roast flavors, a little sweet with some sour tart fruit. It is reminding me of the sour DuClaw Black Jack stout, but this has more fruit and I enjoy it more. A nice brew.

Bottle from ucusty. Dark brown/black with a thin head that went quickly. Aroma of chocolate malt, cherries, tart and sweet. Flavor has nice tart cherry with roast and chocolate. A bit of smoke rounds it out. I liked how the cherries lent an interesting sweet tart thing that went very well with chocolate and roast. Leaves a tart roast on the palate.

Far better than New Glarus Cherry Stout since the Cherry flavor doesn’t overwhelm the brew. You get bombarded with sweet, dry, and bitter shouts all at about the same time. I assumed it would be cloying but it was not.

Poured a syrupy looking flat black with a thin, sticky brown head. Smells of fruit, apples, pears and cherries with none of the roasted malt flavor you’d expect. Really doesn’t taste like beer at all. The sweet cherry and fruit flavor overwhelms any other subtle flavors. The finish brings a touch of the roasted malt combined with the sourness of the cherries. Even if you don’t like beer, you’re likely going to like this. Stout drinkers might be disappointed, but anyone looking for a quality niche beer has found it.

There was just too much cherry flavor in this for me. Very tart cherry flavor that would have been better if it was a little sweeter. This stout was unfortunately one-dimensional. Nice roasty malt finish to balance it out, but the tart cherries were just too much to put this Bell’s offering in with the elite.