Cherry Batch
Fitger's Brewhouse

 

 

 

 

 

 

Originally reviewed on September 17, 2005. Poured as "Fitger's 10th Anniversary Cherry Ale." Super murky ruby pour, tinged brownish. Beautiful top of rose colored head. Lucious black cherry aroma. Super tart cherry flavor. Right up there with New Glarus Belgian Red, but not quite. More saccarhin and lacking warm Abbey or alcohol tones. Like fresh canned or candied cherries. Good use of the cherry flavor is beer. Ethereal quality with some undescribable tones. Palate is both fruity sweet and yet pit dry. Lucious. A tinge ascerbic. Finish is tart, dry, sewet and wonderfully lingering. A nice toasted mellow hop run on the backend.

Actually drove up to Duluth to drink this beer with the wife (and to see my niece at UMD). Unfortunately, I was dissapointed. We had had the 10th Anniversary version of this cherry beer last year at Autumn Brew Review and were impressed. This year the beer came our very sourish, strong cherry. It had a white head that disappeared quickly and a beautiful hazy cherry sour candy flavor. While I like lambic sour as much as the next guy, this was a bit puckering and hard to drink for a long time--sour front to back. Took me a while, but finally nailed the scent--like McDonald's cherry pie. Malty but not enough to balance the beer. Wouldn't get a growler, but really enjoyed the one I had.