This month's Session is hosted by Greg Clow of
Beer, Beats & Bites, who selected "fruit beers" as the theme for this installment. Fruit beers occupy an interesting niche in the beer world, with a lot of people deriding them as girly or as attempts to cover up the taste in order to appeal to people that don't like beer. Having no such prejudices myself, I decided to cover two very different winter release beers made with cherries.
First up is the local boy: Bell's Brewery in Galesburg, MI produces a Cherry Stout, which is made from barley, malt, and cherry juice and clocks in at 8.5% ABV. Purchased as a single 12 oz. bottle for $2.59.
Bell's Cherry Stout
Appearance: Deep, dark brown with a very slight red tint. Minimal reddish-brown head quickly dissipates.
Smell: A hint of roasted malt at the beginning is quickly overwhelmed by sweet and tart cherry aromas.
Taste: Malt presents mainly as cocoa, with a bit of coffee flavour. Sweet-tart cherry overlays the rest, but the flavour doesn't feel integrated at all. Sweet with a sharply sour bite from the cherries. The finish is fairly pleasant, and sticks around for a while.
Mouthfeel: A bit light for a stout, but a good level of carbonation.
Drinkability: Persistently mediocre. Not bad, but not good either.
Well, that was a bit disappointing. Let's hope the next beer will do better.
The second is Quelque Chose, a spiced cherry ale from Unibroue in Quebec. This beer is made with roasted malt, and whole cherries are soaked for months in a mildly bitter ale before being blended into the beer. 8% ABV, purchased in a 75 cl bottle for $9.99; the bottle is marked as best before 7-17-2021.
Unibroue Quelque Chose
Appearance: A vigorous pour produces no head whatsoever. Deep garnet in colour, slightly cloudy.
Smell: A bit of citrus, some sweet cherry. Mild cinnamon and allspice notes.
Taste: Sweet cherry at the beginning, Christmasy spices start to come through in the middle. Hints of plum. Slightly tart, but mainly just sweet.
Mouthfeel: Thin and syrupy, with minimal carbonation.
Drinkability: Oh, it's definitely drinkable. Beautifully balanced clean flavour, but a nagging question remains: where's the malt? This is definitely pushing the boundaries of what I would consider to be a beer. It's delicious, but the taste is so centered on the fruit that it's more like a wine than an ale.