Bells Cherry Ale

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Fruit Beer
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

(12oz botte, RBSG05) Hazed amber body, off-white head. Aroma is medium sweet, sour cherry, caramel, orange. Taste is medium sweet, cherry, some sourness, light caramel. Light-medium body.

Orange pour covered by a regular white head. plasticy tea-like nose. Dull fruits are overshadowed by a characterless yeastiness. Jammy cherries are rather dull, orangey and plasticy once again. Big bubbles strike on the palate at first, but are completely gone after a few seconds.

Pours a deep ruby copper with a thin white head. Aroma of sweet and sour sauce and green hoppiness. Body starts lightly sweet and fruity, turning more sour, mildly earthy, and oily toward the sticky cherry finish. A very confused example of a fruit beer that, coming from Bells should be better. Needs more malt for balance.

Pours red with a white head. Smells strongly of cherries and yogurt. Tastes very tarte with cherries and some moderate hop notes. Tarte finish. More subdued than some other cherry beers I’ve had but still very good.

I think Kalamazoo should have either made a bigger commitment to the cherries, or just dropped the idea altogether. It’s drinkable enough, a slightly tart cherry taste over some rich caramel malts. The cherries in the nose are faint. The brownish-red color isn’t all that appealing. Might be more so if it produced a decent head. They’re also charging too much for this mediocrity.

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Amber color with a mild hue of rudy mixed in. Modest tan head that seems to have a hint of pink. Very fruity aromas. A cherry based fruit punch nose. The label indicates that this was brewed with cherry concentrate, seems like they left some pits in the punch. Has a real cherry of peach pit tartness quality. This does need more malt to keep the cherries in their place. To simple, like a light ale with cherries. Palate is light and somewhat biting. Perhaps this is rated lower as expectations were higher.

Bottle 12 oz. Reddish/brown hue with a medium head that diminished quickly. Average aroma of malt and light cherry. Medium body with light smooth texture. Well balanced fuit flavor with small sweet finish.

12 oz bottle sampled with tiggmtl, Rastacouere and Olivier_MTL at the Best Western in Ann Arbor, MI. Light cherry juice color, bubbly, bit of lasting head and plenty of lace....ok, the appearance is the best part and its all downhill, you know immediately as the aroma is of cheap jam, a touch vinegary and very sugary-fake...body of sour cherries, quite dry, lactic and somewhat doughy, deteriorates as it warms with a chemical/plastic quality....hard to believe this is from Kalamazoo, it really seems like an off batch...seriously there is something wrong here (and mind you, I like fruit beers a lot more than most), take it back Larry!