Barley Days Yuletide Cherry Porter

Brewed by Barley Days Brewery
Style: Fruit Beer
Picton, Canada

On tap at Volo
Appearance: thick cloudy ruby brown look , little top shown
Nose: ripe fruits , some bitterness , light roastiness , brown malt rounded by flat feel 5-
Flavor/Palate : caramel with brown sugar , spiced behind with some fruity ripe character. Mid with woody feel. Mix of woody sugary fruity character. Some spice in it. Leafy with foliage at finish.

Draught at Volo. Very dark - verging on black - with a small tan head. Aroma of dark, almost burnt malt, with a hint of cherry. Flavour is mildly roasty, a bit sweet, with cherry coming through in the mildly bitter finish. Could use a bit more oomph, but still not too bad.

This is a pretty average beer. When looking for a seasonal specialty or fruit beer, you hope that the cherry aspect is going to shine through and compliment the porter style. What results is a lack of robust flavour in either the fruit or malt direction.

A light porter, lots of light comes through on this one. A sweet cherry aroma, and a sour cherry aroma battle it out. There is a touch of roast, but not much. The flavor is like a sour/sweet roasted cherry........with touches of smoke. Just a weird combo of flavors, not my thing.

Bottle, cellar temp. This really looks wonderful: dark black/red with a large inch and a half of head the colour of cappuccino. The aroma on the other hand is musky and a bit unpleasantly sour; there is some chocolate, pine, grass, cherry and what seems like wood that has sat outside in the damp for a bit too long. There is plenty of lacing. The flavour is happily much more pleasant than the aroma: it is quite dry with plenty of dark roasted coffee beans leading to dark cherries. The cherry flavour tastes really like fresh fruit; it’s a bit like there should be a pit to spit out. There is more dry coffee in the finish.

A dark reddish black porter with a thin moka reddish head. A murky woody aroma with light chocolate and resinous wood. In mouth, an interesting butter chocolate, musky, with light fruity notes. Not bad.. Medium bodied. Sampled on tap at Wellington Gastropub, Dec. 11 2008.

341 mL bottle. Dark ruby brown with a brown head that begins well, but cannot maintain the effort. A huge amount of brown sludge left in the bottom of the bottle. Aroma is roast and mild dark cherry. Flavour is more porter than cherry, with the roast and slight astringency prominent. Very grainy mouthfeel. Nuch improver, for this brewer. Better than expected.