June 03, 2010
New Glarus Unplugged Cherry Stout
At the third annual Miasmatic Review Beer Tasting, Harvey of Bad Example brought me a bottle of Unplugged Cherry Stout by the New Glarus Brewing Co in New Glarus, WI for me to review. It had been a while since I’d seen Harvey; it was good seeing him again. It was nicer that he brought me Beer!
We have our standard 12 oz brown bottle. There is a red foil covering over the cap and a neck label that states it is a Cherry Stout. The tan body label had the name of the beer at the top and, I kid you not, a picture that looks like Harvey holding a beer stein. In a red box is the word Unplugged. On the side of the label is a short story about how this is a limited edition beer.
It pours a dark brown color with a reddish tint to it. Light passes through easily enough, but the beer is dark enough that you can’t make out images through it. It reminds me of a cola when looking at it in the glass. As it is labeled a stout, I figured it would be a bit thicker and darker in than it was. A light tan head formed and faded rather quickly. There was barely a film on the top by the time I took my first sip. There is minimal lacing on the side of the glass.
The smell is an almost over powering scent of cherries, both sweet and tart. The cherry scent pretty much overpowers the rest of the scents. If you concentrate you can make out dark roasted malt and a hint of oak. The combination gives the hint of a vanilla scent. The scent is almost soft drink sweet. The taste is pretty much like the scent. The near overpowering flavor of both sweet candied cherries as well as the more tart pie cherries almost masks the rest of the flavors. As the beer warms closer to room temperature you can taste some chocolate malts and a hint of the oak barrel it was aged in.
This is a medium bodied beer with a light carbonation.
I really don’t know if I can call this beer a stout. Its body is too light and the flavors too sweet. The standard roasted malt flavor that is synonymous with stouts is lost behind the fruit flavor of this beer. It’s more of a light porter or a black ale. Really drinking this is like someone made a beer flavored cherry cola. I’ll be honest that it is a little bit sweeter than I normally prefer, but it isn’t bad. I don’t know if I could handle drinking more than one or two of them at a time, but they do go down easy. I don’t think it’s a good stout, but as a beer in general it’s okay. I give it 6 out of 10.
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