Chocolate Cherry Stout
Bandwagon Brewery

 

I think the Bandwagon Brewpub classifies this as a porter, but I could be wrong.

Chocolate Cherry has a dark brown body that is opaque with a soapy brown head that leaves pretty decent lacing behind.

The aroma is pretty good; roasted malts, chocolate and a touch of cherry.

The first thing I notice is a good roasted malt character, but the star of Bandwagon's chocolate cherry porter (stout?) is definitely the cherry, which comes next. A good fruity, tart, cherry flavor mixes with chocolate. The finish has a slight hop bitterness to it. The cherry part of this beer is the best part; without it I would be ambivalent to this beer, but with it, I definitely dig Chocolate Cherry Porter.

The mouthfeel is a little bit light I think, but the carbonation is adequate.

Overall I was impressed with this beer, and I'm sure I will be drinking it again.

Drank draft pints of this poured at the Bandwagon Brew Pub where it was made. Enjoyed it on 3 different visits. Very dark brown, with rich thick tan head that shrank fast, leaving lace ring on glass. No discernible aroma, tho french fry smoke in the atmosphere made it hard to smell any of their five home-brews on tap except their raspberry jalapeno and peanut butter chocolate beers. (On less smoky visits, smell came through better, but still not recognizably cherry.) Could not taste chocolate, but faint cherry fruit went nicely with black porterish malt; slight not quite bitter enough aftertaste leaves tongue pretty happy. Good carbonation and unctuous mouthfeel like buttery fizz. On first 2 visits, I thought it needed more hops. On most recent visit, 2/3/10, found hops aftertaste nice lingering bitter quite sufficient. Could have gone for another pint, but suspect alcohol is rather high in this and it wasn't quite good enough to be drinkable given all the other fine brews they've got to choose here. Since last visit, I'll be drinking this there regularly till their IPA is on tap.

The beer pours a pitch black color with a thick frothy brown head that slowly fades to lacing. The aroma is good. It has a nice roasted and black malt scent along with a faint raspberry aroma. The taste is good as well. It has a very drinkable,
roasted and chocolate malt flavor with a mild cherry character. It has an earthy fruit feel that's a bit sour, but nothing offputing. The mouthfeel is fine. It is a medium/full bodied beer with adequate carbonation. This is a pretty good stout. On it's own, it would be good, but with the fruit added it's damn good.