She's My Cherry Pie Cacao
Tivoli Brewing Company

 

 

"Two or three bucks for a 12oz bottle of a two or more year old odd beer from a brewery I know nothing about? Sure." This was my "why not" bottle to add to the mini-haul for winter, opened and drank December 2, 2018.

Kind of a cute little label on a short and squat brown bottle. "Barrel Aged Specialty Cherry Lager - lager aged for 10 mos. in brandy barrels with cacao nibs - 2016" below the name, "Batch No. 001" and a list of ingredients including a handful of malts, one kind of hop, and Montmorency tart cherries, orchard honey, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Another blurb lists the inspiration from "grandma's cordial candy" which is notably not a pie as the name would imply. No abv to be found on the bottle, their website states 10% abv for the base beer.

Color is a sort of beige, like sheer champage colored fabric on a champage dress with a hint of red apple, or maybe apple juice stain. Fizzy but what little head there is fades away pretty quick, leaving only a faint ring, and no real lacing. Pretty clear until the last gulp's worth is poured into the glass then it becomes cloudy like fresh lemonade.
Aroma is interesting, though not great. It smells like a cheap rosé wine, a Flanders red ale, and an okay imperial lager mixed in equal parts with the wind wafting your neighbor's hot cherry pie through your window. Hops are barely noticeable at a few points as it warms, the sugar and spices aren't there. There's more sour apple than cherry, mostly just the sourness, and there's no cacao nor any noticeable brandy nor barrel whatsoever.
The taste is somewhat similar with more cheap rosé-ness but more of an "imperial apple cider" than sour red. The colder it is the more it tastes like a macro lager with a little "hmm, what is that?" As it warms, the hops start coming through plus some very sour red apple. Never much cherry, no discernable spices or honey. Not a lot of brown sugar, however, it is somewhat sweet, far from the bone dry of cheap macro wine or lagers. Even when it reaches room temp, the amount of cherry pie or cordial is very low, but it starts drinking like a little bit bigger of a beer.
The aftertaste is another story. The first few sips didn't leave much, even for sweetness. As it warmed and I drank more, the aftertaste started to build up a lot more. A little bit of overbrewed tea with double the usualy amount of honey that had been watered down then left out all night, a hint of the bitter and sorta-gross-sorta-good leftover hop and malt slurry in the bottom of the kettle from brewing wort for an imperial amber ale, then a slurry of very sour, tart, yeast-filled sour blonde ale that went sideways. After a few seconds it turns into sourdough rye starter with a hint of apple cider, then that plus a big bite stale, wet cardboard and flood-damaged cheap wooden furniture.
The mediocre mouthfeel is brought up slightly by the bit of sweetness and more body than I was expecting.

As someone who enjoys a good rosé and loves sour red ales and wild beers, there's some stuff in here that I like. If there were more carbonation and less sweetness I might think it was infected judging by the sourness alone, but I think the off flavors are from the not-enough cherries and something else going downhill from time. Overall, for a few bucks I might buy one more to have in the house for who know's what, or age and see how great or terrible it is in another year as a cheap science experiment. And to get it off the shelf so the store will fill the empty spot.