New Glarus Unplugged Cherry Stout

Formerly brewed at New Glarus Brewing Company
Style: Fruit Beer
New Glarus, Wisconsin USA

Nice deep burgundy color. Gentle off-white cover shows light lacing. Very fruity nose shows maraschino cherries and cranberries in a cakey chocolate background that can’t but remind of a Forêt Noir. The fruitiness and alcohol pairing swiftly makes one think about rum. Sweet, cedary and leafy. The malts are beautifully extracted, but a generous acidity grows on parallel, in a fruity way, but I’m not too sure how cohesive it all is and am not sure how far I dig the balance. It is certainly unique in this fashion, but generally speaking, I don’t really enjoy tart stouts, the fruitiness makes it rather vinous and easier to work out here, but at the same time, it is very light bodied and very sweet to the point of leaving a slight sticky film around the mouth and I don’t enjoy that too much. Very interesting beer though and a must try.

Intense sour cherry aroma, lush tart cherry front and center. Roast malt is there, plenty of backbone to stand up to the fruit onslaught, but like the Belgian Red this is defnitely about the cherries. Mahogany body with a decent head - effervescent like a lambic.

Poured a very dark ruby color with a small beige head. Aroma of chocolate covered cherries. The kind that has the chocolate around the cherry and syrup. Yum. Some coffee notes are underneath. The aroma has some taart notes. The flavor is great with loads of sweet but tart cherry. Some chocolate roasty malt but light. Why did it take me so long to drink this beer? Must get more.

The long quiet humulus was generous enough to part with a bottle of this unique offering. Dark brown, thin cream head. Sourish aroma of cherries and burnt, roasted malt. Peculiar flavor profile, with cherries being the most pronounced characteristic, but also displaying barrel tannins to create a bit of a sour "funk" that uncomfortably paired with the roasted malts of the stout base. Knowing what this was improved my impression, but the marriage of sour cherries and bitter roast was not without incident.

Out of da’ bottle- Very dark brown color, white head. Aroma is chocolate and cherries, a little coffee in there as well. Flavor starts out Belgian Red, and slowly fades into Road Slush Stout, a bit more chocolate/cocoa to the finish. Interesting... very very interesting...

2006 bottle consumed on 6/14/06. Pours a dark blackish color with a small off white head. a red hue singes the top and bottom of the beer. Nose is sweet and cherry like with some cocoa powder. Palate is kinda thin with a stingy feeling to it. Mouth is sour cherries and the chocolate seems to have disapeared or been overtaken by the cherries. def not balanced well.

2006 bottle from StewardofGondor (I may never drink all of the beers he so graciously sent) shared on 6/14/06. A rapidly fizzling head (dark ivory/buttercream in color) almost immediately fizzles to a ring, leaving no real lacing, but a slight film behind. The body is extremely dark, but ruby tinted on the edges and showing a medium-high to high clarity upon settling, unfortunately filtered and force carbonated, it seems. Extremely forceful sweet cherries crowd in on the nose, giving way briefly, for some light tartness and hints of old, oily, dry oak notes. Chocolate dots at the palate, with the requisite burnt, ashy black malts, but the cherries outlive, becoming sweet, nearly cloying in the nose and almost gummy/thick. But it certainly is something to be smelled, being of medium-high strength and just bursting with sweet cherries. Not unlike cherry pie, with a very light tartness in the backround. In the flavor, the cherry overwhelms and what should be a dominant, dark, ashy, roasted malt is left wondering how it lost the battle to cherries. Just like a day or two old cherry pie, it has that gummy, moist filling-like flavor, sweet and yet with some tartness. Had I never tried Jolly Pumpkin, I’d be more apt to find this interesting, but it just seems crude and forced, the barrel character being tart, but not cohesive with the syrupy, sweet, strong cherries and disjointed black malt character. The high level of filtration certainly does not help things, as the beer goes flat and watery quickly, with a loose texture and lacking carbonation. Tight, natural carbonation coud keep the sweet cherries at bay, while allowing more of the barrel character to develop. It certainly does show aspects of wild yeast or, at least, heavy tannins and sharp wood, but it just isnt elegantly done, too brutish here, IMHO. Alcohol is well-masked.

Provided by Hopscotch. Dark brown/black body with reddish tint and a small, off-white head. The aroma is cherry coke, vanilla and light roast. The flavor explodes into sour pie cherries, underneath lies some roast, chocolate and molases. Wow. It’s like a 50/50 mix of roadslush and belgian red. Medium body with a soft and smooth texture. Awesome stuff.