pforei (338), USA
| 3.2 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 8/10 | 4/5 | 6/10 | 3/5 | 11/20 | Jul 16, 2008 Bottle from Foodery, Philly. Black cherry soda color with small dark tan head. Aroma of chocolate cherry and roastiness seems coherent. But the tartness/sourness of the taste doesn’t fit the choclate/roasty supporting cast. Innovative. Thick and slightly medicinal after warming. Odd taste is left on the tongue. 502Flavors (622), Louisville, Kentucky, USA
| 3.1 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 7/10 | 4/5 | 5/10 | 4/5 | 11/20 | Jul 13, 2008 12 oz. bottle into sniffer. Jet black pour with a minimal mocha brown head. Aroma is strange - reminds me of a Sam Smith with its dusty notes. I can sort of detect cherries on the aroma, but funky sour cherries. Lots of molasses, smoke, and bitter chocolate too. Flavor is funky as hell: smoked meat, no cherries, almost sour ale finish. Starts off gross but gets more tolerable. weird stuff though. Nice and rich on palate, pretty coating. Overall: strange. Worth tasting just to experience the weirdness of it. twitcher (293), framingham, Massachusetts, USA
| 2.5 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 5/10 | 2/5 | 5/10 | 3/5 | 10/20 | Jul 11, 2008 Updated: Jul 12, 2008bottle. Pours a solid, opaque black with almost no head. Aroma on the light side, dark semi sweet fruits, some raisins, a hint of cherry, and some burnt toast. Flavors don’t work too well... some acidic tartness and hints of cherries, heavy over-roasted malts. Lots of bittersweet flavors overwhelm any other flavors. Eh. Full bodied on the palate, with a bit of an oily slick finish. Not one of the more impressive offerings from Bell’s.
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Gah... as it warms... this brew, uch as I hate to say it, ventures into the realm of drain-pours. I’m sure some enjoy it, but for me, this is one of the few offerings from Bells that just thoroughly craps out. Odeed (1677), Bakersfield, California, USA
| 3.1 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 7/10 | 3/5 | 5/10 | 2/5 | 14/20 | Jul 5, 2008 black body with brown highlights.nice light brown head.lots of molasses in the aroma,with a bit of chocolate and coffee.flavor is much of the same with some thick cherry syrup shinning through at the end.its interesting if its anything. sirpsycho (350), Murrysville, Pennsylvania, USA
| 1.6 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 4/10 | 4/5 | 1/10 | 1/5 | 6/20 | Jul 4, 2008 Bottle. Batch 7821. Pours a very dark brown, head that disappeared almost immediately. Aroma is soy sauce and a slight cherry note buried in there somewhere. Taste was an assault on my tongue ! Big, up front notes of soy sauce and a very unleasant medicinal cherry flavor on the finish. I checked the brew date, begininning of 2007, so it’s a little over a year old. I know I cellared it correctly, I’m wondering if the place I bought it at (place in Ann Arbor, MI) took care of it while they had it. If I’m feeling brave in the future, I think this deserves a re-rate. But it’s going to take awhile before I risk abusing my tongue again. Not what I’m accustomed to coming from such a great brewery. I tried very hard to finish this one and unfortunately I couldn’t. Naka (526), Indiana, Pennsylvania, USA
| 3.5 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 7/10 | 3/5 | 6/10 | 4/5 | 15/20 | Jun 26, 2008 Pours a dark black color. The sunlight doesn’t even pass through it. There was a very small fizz for a few seconds, but not really much of a head. What was there was a dark tan color. The aroma is a dark chocolate coffee nose with a head of bitter chocolate. A little molasses mixed in with some dark fruits... maybe fig and black currant. The flavor is very smoky with a bitter burnt coffee characteristic, but also has a very sour cherry flavor to it. The malt sweetness and the cherry sourness don’t hit simultaneously, so it is almost as if they don’t meld that well. A nice texture. Leaves the burnt bitter flavor in the mouth. shanepardue (107), Raytown, Missouri, USA
| 3.4 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 9/10 | 3/5 | 5/10 | 3/5 | 14/20 | Jun 23, 2008 VERY tart cherry flavor ending with a dark chocolate aftertaste. Pours black with brown head. This is another good beer from Bell’s! DocHop (278), Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| 3.6 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 7/10 | 3/5 | 7/10 | 3/5 | 16/20 | Jun 23, 2008 Pours a dark fudge brown with a small, dense brown head that rings the glass. Aroma of chocolate covered cherries, small alcohol, small coffee, small roasted oats. Definitely sweet overtone to a normal stout, but hard to pick out cherries, more of a sweet, slightly bitter chocolate, which finishes roasty. Body isn’t quite there, but I know what they were going for.
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