Chocolate Cherry Mild
Dunham Massey Brewing Company

Cask at the GBBF 2008. Black colour, dark brown in the highlights, decent tan head. Lovely aroma of cherries on a background of milk chocolate. The cherries are also clearly noticeable in the flavour, but roasted malts, dark chocolate and mild coffee also come up front. Moderate bitterness in the finish. This beer is something out of the ordinary, but I’d still like some more malty sweetness.

Bottled and bottle conditioned
pour a cola dark brown body with minimal tan head
aroma is full on cherry cola
the flavour is mainly candy cherry with a little dark chocolate
nice body

This was poured into a pint glass. The appearance was a semi-dark red color with a one finger white to off white foamy head that dissipated within about a minute and then leaving a decent amount of speckled lacing. The smell had a super sweet cherry in front of some dried dark chocolate. The taste took the sweet cherry and dark chocolate to combine and added a slight tart element to it. On the palate, this one sat about a light to medium with a decent sessionability about it. There was a mild soft carbonation about it to allow a smooth texture about it. Overall, good mild ale that I could down again, nothing over the top.

 

 

A 500ml bottle with a BB of Feb 2013, so it's just out of date. Picked up a while back from the York Wine & Beer shop. A dark mild flavoured with cherries - should be an interesting combination.

Poured into a tulip pint glass. Bottle conditioned. A dark ruby-brown hue with plentiful carbonation and the odd chunk of floating yeast. Yields a huge head of creamy beige foam with superb stability; it lasts for ages before reducing to a thick surface layer. Aroma of cherries with a hint of chocolate. Quite sweet, with faint notes of roasted malt, grain and earthy yeast. The cherry is less intense than other fruit beers but still dominates the character.

Tastes of tart cherry juice mingled with subtle chocolate malt. Notes of cherry, mild grain, a hint of chocolate, faint roasted malt and earthy yeast. A twinge of cardboard in the background; slightly harsh. Mouthfeel is smooth and tingly, but the body is a bit thin for the style and the carbonation is excessive. Somewhat dry, with an aftertaste of cherries and acrid cardboard.

Hmmmm - unusual but not as good as I'd hoped. It looks decent but that's about it. The cherry is certainly there, however the chocolate notes are weak and so are the rest of the malt flavours. What this needs is an enhanced malt presence to balance out the cherry. Yeast can be discerned but doesn't add anything. Harsh, dry background notes. Body is OK but not great. The only problem I can think of is age; I might try a fresher example in the future just to check. In short, it's an interesting idea but the execution needs improvement. Try it if you like but no need to seek it out.

Brown 500ml bottle, best before Aug 2011, poured into a UK straight sleeve pint glass. This is bottle conditioned, so the pour is controlled.

Even with a slow pour the beer produced a huge light tan coloured foaming head, below sat a dark, clear reddy brown body, no sediment, it remained in the bottle.

Belgian Kriek like aroma, but not as pronounced as some, hints of chocolate? Only because the label claimed it was a chocolate cherry mild, which made me search for it with my nose.

The taste was a semi-sour cherry mix with a very slight chocolatey feel. Well carbonated, the beer was almost too fizzy and lively, made me burp a couple of times: as I sipped trying to find the flavours within. Herbs and Spices (a mixed bunch) seemed to appear, then be beaten off by the carbonisation and cherry twang the beer had.

Certainly different to any Dark Mild I've had before: did I like it? Not really, reminded me of Vimto too much!

The beer lacked balance and body depth, could have been so, so much better if it had a richer, creamier feel (not that I'm a brewer).

Lovely blackish amber color with a full, poofy, pearly ivory head. Enormous cherry nose, verging on sickly sweet, like cherry pie filling without the crust, or Cherry Coke with chocolate cake. Faint roasted malt perceptible in the background. Enjoyment of this beer will be contingent upon your taste for cherries/cherry flavoring, because it is much more a cherry beer than it is a mild. As for the chocolate, it goes missing under the veil of tart cherry. Sweet, but also fairly dry, though it could be dryer. Not bad, but I'm glad I only had a third.

Very dark brown pour stirs up two fingers of off-white head, which eventually fades to a thin cap with some lacing. Sharp cherry aroma, with some smooth milk chocolate in behind it. First taste is overwhelmingly cherry (extract I think), but this thankfully gives way to a bit more complexity of flavour with some chocolate malts, and a touch of cofee. Decent bitterness at the edges. Body is light with a short-lived tingling carbonation from the bottle conditioning. ABV makes it very sessionable, although I wouldn't usually opt for a fruit beer.