MacLean's Cherry Porter
MacLean's Beer

At my lady Pamela's house; canned and chilled, 473mL in a pint glass. From the Huron Church Rd. LCBO in nearby Windsor. Illegible date stamp. My third beer from the Thornbury, Ontario brewery, and for 2025. Wonderfully admired by Sundae the cat...

Pours gem clear, garnet red, with a one-inch, light khaki froth. The head slowly settles, leaving geographic lacing on a Pretentious Glass Company Juicy pint glass. The head eventually becomes a thick blanket. A profusion of fine carbonation swarms throughout.

The aroma is surprisingly neutral. With effort, one can find chocolate malt. However, the cherry is utterly lost. Warmth brings out some cranberries, again, only with some effort.

The flavor is equally neutral, with some malt and black coffee. Ash settles in the background. The finish, oddly, is surprisingly strong and moderately long, and is a mild, bitter experience. Warmth finally reveals faint cherries and adds mild, smoked summer sausage.

This one has a medium body and the texture of smooth, hard-polished steel. Alcohol is light, as expected. Carbonation is decent, as per style, although less than had been suggested by the appearance.

While nothing special, this is a good beer. I had hoped it would pair well with elk sausage. Unfortunately, the overall mildness allowed the beer to become lost. Even once warmth revealed smoky flavors in the beer, it was all too subtle to have any real effect.

 

Looks like a cola, with dark red undertones. The head dissipates quickly leaving very light lacing. Barely discernable, a whole lot of nothing going on.

The cherries are barely discernable. On the whole slightly astringent and bitter.

Very underwhelming for a craft beer. As I was drinking this I couldn't help thing this reminds me of something else. Then it hit me. This reminded me of Alexander Keith's Amber Ale. A passable major brewery beer, but not what I was expecting from a craft microbrew.
This beer gets a C.

 

Can: pours a clear cola color with ruby highlights...smallish 1 finger tan cap lasts as a surface lace....mild aromas of coffee-like roasted grains and a subtle berry fruitiness over dank grassiness....slick mouth feel, robust body...flavor has a balanced amalgam of roasty malts, fruity discernment and hop bittering....long wet finish where bittering and roasted astringency build in a clan roasty-hoppy finish....well done flavored porter.

 

473 mL can from the LCBO; served barely chilled. There's a date stamp on the label, but it's smeared and illegible; in any event, it's a recent release so I doubt this is much more than a month old.

Pours dark but not opaque, boasting a deep, chestnut brown-coloured body with crimson red highlights. Situated atop is roughly one finger of foamy buff-coloured head that settles off within five minutes' time; a thin cap and frothy collar of generous width remain in place, with a narrow band of lacing also having been left behind. The aroma consists of toasted malts/bready sweetness, together with hints of lightly roasted coffee beans, cocoa and caramel. Extremely subtle hint of cherry - so subtle that it's hardly even discernible, at least before the beer warms to room temperature.

A standard-issue porter... they shouldn't have emphasised the cherry (from a marketing standpoint), as it barely factors into the flavour profile at all. I'm getting notes of caramel, cola and toasted bread, with mild cocoa and coffee flavours also showing up by mid-sip. There may be a hint of sour-ish dark fruit mixed in there, but it's a very minor element and certainly not something I'd confidently identify as 'cherry'; kind of ashy/astringent towards the finish, with sweeter notes of caramelized malts and chocolate quickly fading into the aftertaste. Light-medium in body, with low carbonation levels that weakly nudge against the palate; feels smooth and soft on the tongue, with fairly good drinkability.

Final Grade: 3.48, a serviceable B-. I wouldn't call MacLean's Cherry Porter a bad beer, but I will say that it's an unremarkable porter. I am not a huge fan of cherry beers, so I wouldn't even say that the lack of cherry is the biggest problem with this one - though I do feel that the sketch on the label is likely to mislead some consumers into thinking they're buying a fruitier beer. The big issue is that it's very plain and unmemorable. As far as MacLean's products go, I'd take their oatmeal stout or Scotch ale over this without thinking twice.

 

473 ml can served cold into a pint glass. LCBO purchase for $3.25 CDN.

Appearance - Cola brown through and through, capped with a finger and a half of light tan head that sits on top for a while. Some nice spotty lacing.

Smell - Not much aroma when cold, chocolate mostly, some roasty coffee bits and the faintest hint of cherry.

Taste - Fairly bitter, some acrid smoke and roasty notes. Much less chocolate and even coffee than on the nose. Slightly burnt wood. Not getting much cherry here at all. Taste is watery.

Mouthfeel - Fairly decent, smooth, a little velvety, carbonation is right, but a very dry finish. Body is somewhat heavy, but the taste doesn't support that.

Overall - MacLean's Cherry Porter is a miss for me, because not only is the porter a bit too acrid for my tastes, but most importantly no cherry is to be found in the taste. Maybe worth a try for those with an ability to pick up cherry in almost everything.

 

Dark, with a reasonable head - not too much, not too little, I found the smell disappointing, with not much hint of what was to come. I am not a big cherry fan, but was intrigued by this beer. The cherry flavour was subtle, I had been concerned it would be over the top. Put this down as I would buy it again.

Feb 25 2025