Cherry Lager
Shawn & Ed Brewery Co

From a 473ml can dated 22 July 2025. Poured into a pint glass. A big one finger white head on a very slightly hazy reddish gold. The head diminished to a thin layer that stuck around. Sheets of fine lacing.

Grainy malts in the nose. some indistinct fruit. The taste is malt forward. The cherry is apparent but is pretty subdued. It's not really a fruit beer.

A medium/light body with good carbonation. Overall a pretty solid lager with mild cherry flavouring.

473 mL can from the LCBO; dated 06/05/2025 and served slightly chilled.

This lager is foggy golden orange in colour; a deliberately rough pour manages to kick up one finger of loose, bubbly white head that is in a hurry to be someplace else. A generous collar of soapy froth remains in place for most of the session, responsible for some impressive lace generation - it's a good-looking lager, I'll give it that. Faint cherry on the nose, amidst hints of grainy malts and doughy sweetness.

It tastes fine, but the cherry is more of a complement vs. the main attraction. Grainy malts do most of the heavy lifting, accompanied by minor notes of bread, cherry and subtle grassy, herbal hops; slight metallicity on the back end, but it's not significant enough to be a major issue. Cherry skin and grassiness persist into the aftertaste before drying partially. On the lighter side of medium-bodied, with mild carbonation that brushes gently across the surface of the palate. Quite crushable; I could toss back a few of these with no complaint.

Final Grade: 3.63, a B grade. Some folks may be disappointed by the restrained cherry flavours of LagerShed Cherry, but I don't fall into that category. I appreciate the fact that this tastes like a standard craft lager with cherries added, rather than being a neon-red, sugar-laden gimmick beer. On the other hand, I'd probably take their LagerShed Original over this variant nine times out of ten: IMO, there are only a handful of fruits that work well in the context of a pale lager, and cherry isn't really one of them (though I'll grant that they did an acceptable job here). This is worth trying at least once, ideally on a hot summer day.

More lager than anything else with just a whisper of anything cherry. Passable as an ordinary lager. Clear rusty orange under a moderate head, lots of lace. Not heavy, drinkable.

Review from notes. Served cold into a pint glass. LCBO purchase.

Appearance - Quite red, fairly clear and otherwise standard lager fare with lots of bubbles and a small quick fizzling off-white head.

Smell - Plenty of cherry, some grainy bits as well. Cherry added to a bare-bones lager essentially.

Taste - Medium-low bitterness, cherry is integrated quite well. A touch of cherry tartness. Essentially cherry flavored lager.

Mouthfeel - Crisp and quite fizzy, goers down very easy.

Overall - I don't love this beer, but the no-frills attached cherry + lager combo makes it straightforward and approachable, with both components being properly represented. Very food execution.

At my lady Pamela's house; canned and chilled, 473mL in a pint glass. From The Roundhouse Centre LCBO in nearby Windsor. My first beer from the Dundas, Ontario brewery.

June 1 2025

Appearance: A cloudy red/orange body that doesn't reveal much in the way of carbonation did produce a finger and a half of head that produced a lot of lace, while it stay around which wasn't very long.

Smell: Mild cherry tone with straw like malt. There's really not much to go on here and warming doesn't really help its case.

Taste: Once again, Mild cherries with a hint of straw like malt, however it builds in unison as the cherries take one a more sour quality before they slam into a wall of earth hops, leaving only that which has slipped through the cracks into the aftertaste.

Mouthfeel: The carbonation greatly favors the back end of the beer, and while I do like how the build up of the beer happens, the hop note at then end leaves something to be desired. This is especially true with the aftertaste which comes across as a mix of coarse dry sand mixed with acidic cherry juice, still fighting a pointless bout.

Drinkability: Pushing the limits of light bodied, making it a bit more interesting then a standard lager and could be a lot more refreshing if not for that dry aftertaste. Settles down well enough and doesn't let the aftertaste build on itself.

Final Thoughts: A more interesting choice then a standard lager, that is for sure. This product comes as advertised, I expected cherries mixed with a lager and that's what I got. Do I wish the cherries complimented some other interesting flavors of the beer? Yes. Do I wish the lager side didn't have an earthy, overhopped end? You bet. Do I think this brew could be tweaked to be made better? Oh heck yes. That said, I wasn't disappointed with what I got, as both the cherry and lager aspects here were in fairly equal measure.