New Glarus Unplugged Cherry Stout

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

12 oz bottle courtesy of The_Enemy. I’m a huge fan a well done fruit beer, and New Glarus Unplugged Cherry Stout is an outstanding one in my opinion. This beer pours to a deep ruby red to brown color, with a soapy, pink head that fades, and a moderate carbonation. The nose on this beer is fantastic, with aromas of sweet and tart cherry, paired with mild vinous/oaky notes. The palate is soft, with good flavor of dark chocolate, and malt, with a very pleasing, sweet/sour cherry back ground. This beer finishes with more dark chocolate and malt flavor up front, then ends with a sweet and tangy, cherry flavor that linger. Nothing "stout" like in this beer in a traditional sense. More of a wonderful fruit beer showcasing Wisconsion cherries, and 8 Wisconsin malts. This beer was so aromatic, delicious, and flavorful. It tastes like a liquid, chocolate covered cherry, and makes for an ultimate desert beer, or after dinner drink. I was really impressed witht this one, and the one bottle I savored, had my crying for more. I LOVE this beer! One of the most impressive fruit beers I have tried in a very long time.

From WeeheavySD. Phenomenal beer. lightly tart, chocolate and coconut nose and the same in the flavor with maybe a little wood and smoke. It was hard to wrap my head around this beer other then to say it was one of the more uniqrue and delicious beers Ive had.

Pours a deep dark brown/black, with ruby tones when held to the light. Scant head of darkish brown foam gives way to a ring of lighter tan foam. Looks lightly carbonated but not flat. Decent spotty lacing sticks around a bit, then slides back down into the beer. Fantastic aroma of oak, whiskey, tart cherry, roasted grain, and chocolate malt. Very flavorful beer, with both sweet and tart cherry flavors, woody oak, and lightly burnt chocolate malt. Starts out not quite sweet and finishes not quite dry. Fresh Traverse City (okay - Door County) tart cherries in the aftertaste. Medium body, light but lively carbonation.

I had no idea what to expect from this intriguing beer when I ordered a bottle of it in a bar in West Bend, WI. Luckily, any trepidation on my part was soon obliterated by the delicious cherry scent in the first whiff. I asked for a pint glass to pour a sample for a friend. It poured a nice dark stout color ( I couldn’t tell much by the dim lighting in the bar). It looked nice and hearty, though. Now, the taste. Honestly, this would have been a good stout even without the cherry addition. But a large amount of Wisconsin cherries used in the brewing process make a very tasty brew. This wasn’t that saccharine artificial cherry flavor that you find in most candies and chewing gum. These cherries are that Door County quality of sour/sweet that I love. The stout allowed woody hints to emerge as it warmed. The only think I can complain about regarding New Glarus Unplugged Edition Cherry Stout is that I only enjoyed a 12 ounce bottle. I would prefer to drink this from the keg.

Bottle. Thanks to Badgerben for the opportunity. Aroma is simply phenomenal. From the folks that brought us Belgian Red, I shouldn’t be surprised that they nailed another Cherry beer...and I don’t like cherries. Smells like I remember the Belgian Red, but perhaps with more malt. Actually kind of reminds me of the cherry equivalent of Kuhnhenn Raspberry Eisbock in the nose. Clear dark mohagany in which you can only see the carbonation when held closely to the light. Thin, tight bubble, tan head. Attractive brew. This is the fourth beer I’ve had in my new Hacker Pschorr Weisse glass (yes, I know, not proper glassware for the style, but I’m in housing limbo right now) and no lace to speak of. Either it’s the glass, or more likely the Palmolive Oxy detergent I used to wash it. Tart, but not as tart as I recall the Belgian Red to be. Also not nearly as carbonated a mouthfeel as the BR. This brew works better for me as I like the interplay of the chocolate malts and the cherries. It’s a lovely combination that works oh so well.

Pours a rich brown froth that dissipates leaving a gloppy lace. Color is a superb rich chesnut brown, very dark but not opaque. A wonder of flavors. Fruitier than most cherry stouts, but expertly done. Afew early mettalic notes, but they disappeared once it got a chance to breathe. The cherries here are so distinctive to New Glarus, very rich-flavored and very tart. Not really stout-like, or porter-like, so a point subtracted there. I’d call it a ’Cherry Brown". Really nice.

Oct. 28, 2006 Re-Rate: <P> Still has that decaying orange pulp aroma with big whiffs of oak though it seems pretty dusty now. The head this time around is limper and doesn’t last as long. Still tastes perfect...tart cherries, overripe orange pulp, vanilla, oak, white cake, chocolate, cocoa and a tongue prickling tartness in the finish. The look and aroma might have slid slightly, but the flavor might even be getting better...though 10 is as high as I can give it. <P> Original Rating was 4.7 <P> Courtesy of The_Enemy. Thanks, Brian <P> Aroma holds an overripe slightly sour smell that I associate with rotting oranges, but that I assume to be cherries. The oak aroma is definitely alive in there as well. My first impression from the aroma is that it smells like an orange laced Flemish Sour which is intruiging. <P> Color is dark brown to black and the head is tan and diminished quickly to a dime thin affair. <P> Mmmm lots of tart cherry in the fore then very quickly you taste sweet cherry notes and then just as quickly chocolate malts play across the tongue. Very fast transitions of flavors. A sort of cake/eclair pastry like sweet and wholesome flavor flows from the middle to the finish. I swear I taste hints of over ripe orange juice and vanilla, but it’s probably the combined oak/sour cherry flavors merging to suggest that vanila flavor. The chocolate asspect seems to become less pronounced as it warms and more of the sourness and cherry comes through, though it never completely fades...it mostly just slides further back in the order and so you get more chocolate in the finish. Vanilla notes also come out as it warms along with more of the oak. <P> For a fruit beer it has quite a nice mouthfeel. I have to say I am pretty floored. This was much better than I thought it would be. NG is just a fantastic brewery.

Man, this beer is HUGE. Its one step shy of being syrup. A huge cherry taste with a huge boquet. Slightly smokey aftertaste. One of the best Unplugged beers in my opinion.