New Glarus Unplugged: Cherry Stout

Today I have the return of Cherry Stout from New Glarus and their Unplugged Series. This beer was first brewed back in 2003 (at least that is when it won its first award) and has won 4 awards since 2003. I missed this one when it came out the first time so I don’t have a point of reference on what the first one was like, but New Glarus is a highly consistent brewery, so I am confident that the beer we have here is pretty much the same as the first run. This beer is billed as a Cherry Stout so if you recall from previous posts, we will judge this beer as a fruit beer with the base style of an unknown stout style, so lets just assume for the sake of argument that it is a dry stout embedded in there. The reason is because I am assuming the fruit will add some sweetness to begin with and using a sweet or oatmeal stout as the base could make the beer appear to be overly sweet and cloying. But again, this is just my assumption. Just remember, a proper fruit beer should be a harmonious balance of the featured fruit with the underlying beer style, but this statement in and of itself is subjective as to what a harmonious balance is.

Off the bat, the aroma is thick with cherry’s. What I do like is it is obvious that this real cherry, unlike another cherry beer I reviewed earlier on. What seems to be missing to me is any real solid hint at a stout, of any kind. I do get some very mild roasted grain, but you really have to pay attention to find it. There is some mild oaky character that comes across as almost brown sugar-like. I really had to think about what was causing that aroma, and it hit me that it is some oak with vanilla melded with the malt. At least that is my impression. As good and honest as the aroma is, I just don’t see enough stout in it to score it high. This is one of those cases where the numbers will not reflect that this beer is better than the score represents. If you have ever had Belgian Red, this beer smells very close to that as well.  (6 points)

The color is a deep garnet, and the stream when I poured it was a stream of a muddy red color. In the glass it sits very dark brown with garnet highlights. The head was very nicely formed and 10 minutes in still has a very thin layer. (3 points)

The flavor at first is similar to cherry cola. Not Cherry Coke, but if you have ever been to an old-time restaurant or soda shop that adds real cherry juice and cherries to cola. The beer is sweet up front, and finishes out a bit tart. The only solid hint of stout I get is in the finish where there is a prominent flavor of roasted grain working against the tartness from the cherry. The wood in here is very mild and for me comes across late in the finish. As the beer warms it starts to show a bit more chocolate in with that cherry. I am really liking the flavor a lot more than I thought I would. Usually when it comes to fruit beers, I like to have the fruit act as a highlight to enhance the beer, this one showcases the fruit just like their other fruit beers do. Still, a stout is a bold and assertive beer and if billed as such should make more of an appearance. As much as I’m digging the flavor, I just can’t see any solid stout showing. (10 points)

The mouthfeel is a bit more full than I would expect, but still does a nice job of not coming up too full. The stout portion of the beer should lend to a bit more of medium to fuller mouthfeel, so the beer hits the mark here. (5 points)

Overall, I can drink this beer all night long, but the point of fact is that this beer would be better billed as a different beer for the base style. There just is not enough stout in it from my perspective to call it a cherry stout. I don’t really know what to call it, but to me it comes across more as cherry brown than cherry stout. But then again, Cherry Brown does not have the great ring that cherry stout does. I really like the real cherry aroma and flavor, and the tartness and overall flavor is very appealing, so I can see why it won some awards, including a few Gold Medals at the GABF. The only reason I can’t personally score it high is because of the stout tag. This beer gets a solid recommendation to drink it and enjoy it, but for the sake of judging it as I would in competition, I can give it an overall of 6 points (6 points)

The number score I would give this beer is 30, which is good and would probably be a C or C+. Again, I can’t stress enough that its not because this beer is bad, or that the pros who judge at the GABF have it wrong (From what I gather the judging at the GABF is run a bit differently than than in homebrew competitions), this is just one of those things where from my judging standpoint, I like to see a bit more of the base style come through. If this beer was called something other than stout, it would probably get much higher from me. As you can tell it does pain me to give what I think is such a low score to such a well brewed and easy drinking beer, not to mention that I am a huge fan of New Glarus. But you do have to call it like you see it as you interpret the style guidelines.