Tart Cherry Radler
Waterloo Brewing

Interesting bevvy. Cherry flavour can be hard to master in an alcoholic drink, but they do a pretty decent job here.

Cloudy pink colour and smell of candy. More sweet than tart but the cherry flavour is well done. Tastes more like a cooler than a beer, but it is refreshing with a nice mouth-feel.

If you're into cherry-flavoured booze you'll probably like this. Only 2.5% so you'll need to drink a few!

This is a variation on a theme from the folks at Waterloo. Brew up some sort of average beer and pour some sort of syrup or juice into it. These things are okay for what they are - fairly light summertime cooler type drinks that offer up some degree of novelty. They range from being weak-kneed efforts to being somewhat extreme (maple pecan comes to mind).

This one is cherry enough without drifting off into being candy or syrup. Pale slightly hazed pink, a short lived pinkish head and no lacing. Fruity nose and flavour without being candy or bubble gum-like. Maybe make it into a hot summer afternoon project - line up as many of these as you can and then grind your way through as you bake your brains out in the sun.

473 mL can
Served in a pint glass

This beverage pours a pink tinged amber color. It is topped with an inch of off white head that leaves spotty lacing.

It has a refreshing cherry aroma.

The taste is tart cherry and ale. It has just the right amount of cherry. It is quite thirst quenching after 12+ hours of work outside on what felt like the surface of the sun.

Medium bodied with a pillowy mouthfeel

This absolutely hit the spot. It is chuggable and tasty. Great hot weather radler.

473 mL can from TBS; coded Feb 2 2021 and served slightly chilled.

Pours a foggy, pale salmon-pink colour, producing one finger of soapy white suds that disintegrates within sixty seconds, give or take. Some messy, sea foam lace has been spattered about in its wake, which also leaves behind a bubbly collar and filmy cap - looks pretty good to me. The nose is pure sugar with some cherry candy mixed in, similar to Fanta red pop.

It's palatable, but extremely sweet - Sweet Tarts candy was the first thing that came to mind, or maybe Pixy Stix. It mostly just tastes of sugar and cherry candy, with faint hints of malt in the aftertaste, only discernible once the sugariness has dissipated sufficiently. Light in body, with very fizzy, soda pop-like carbonation that assaults the palate aggressively, resulting in a very crisp, biting, palate-scrubbing mouthfeel. One can was more than enough for me.

Final Grade: 3.14, a mediocre C+. Waterloo's Tart Cherry Radler isn't awful, but it's not even close to what I want out of a cherry fruit beer. If you just poured this into a glass and told me it was a cherry Palm Bay or Mike's Hard or whatever, I'd believe you 100%. This is one of those 'barely even beer' fruit beers - I'd drink this if it were handed to me, but it's not something I plan to buy again, and overall I'd say it's one of Waterloo's poorest radlers. On the other hand, if you like cherry-flavoured coolers, don't hesitate to give this one a try.

Review from notes. Purchase was a can from the LCBO for just over $3 CDN. Served cold into a pint glass.

Appearance - pale pink colored beer with next to no head. Some murkiness.

Smell - Artificial yes, but smells like a very nice sour cherry soft drink, I have a weakness for this type of stuff and this smells inviting albeit not beer like.

Taste - Some tart cherry, lots of sweetness afterwards, but the tartness cuts through and prevents it from being one-dimensional.

Mouthfeel - Light body, crisp carbonation, works well with the flavor profile.

Overall - Not a great beer, but as a "beer-like" beverage, it's pretty decent. Have to like sour cherry to make this work, but the tart and sweet balance each other out reasonably well.

Sept 15 2024