Marble Tree Cherry Brown Ale
Haymarket Beer Co. Pub & Brewery

 

i wanted to like this one so much more than i did, a brown ale with chocolate and cherry in it, i found it somewhat sweet and one dimensional, without a real defined chocolate or cherry profile, and all in a sort of uneventful base brown ale. i guess thats not the consensus on it, as others here seemed to have dug it, but it just didnt really turn me on the way i hoped it would. the beer is light from the tap for what it is, a medium brown tone, with very little head after the pour. the cherry flavor is sort of candied and sweet to me, a generic red berry vibe more than a specific cherry essence, and with the amber malt sort of sweetness behind it, its quite sugary overall. the cacao is obvious in feel but not in taste, its a little earthy maybe with that aspect of the malt, and its almost buttery in feel, rich in that way, but the flavor contribution seems minimal to me. the whole thing lacks cohesiveness and also carbonation, but it does get a little better as it warms. it somehow seems to be missing something, and i think its that low end dark character, which could either come from chocolate or from darker malt, but it comes from neither in this case. not bad overall, but the one i was least stoked on during our recent visit to the brewery.

 

 

I tried this at the brewery in Chicago. It was a very good brown ale.