Brew Ha Ha, 10/15

I was really hoping to make it out to Raleigh last night for the annual Big Food Truck Harvest at Big Boss, complete with cask ales and pumpkin carving, but threats of inclement weather and bad traffic on I-40 kept me at home. The shit-show must go on, however, so I hit the bottle shop in lieu of the party and rummaged up something for this week’s Brew Ha Ha. This time I gravitated away from the local beers that I’ve been harping on recently, exchanging them for challenging stuff from stranger American
climes. The results were, well, mixed.

Bell’s Cherry Stout:

I was intrigued by the very idea of this winter offering from Bell’s Brewery up in Michigan. Fruit beers are eternally popular among certain types of drinkers, mostly those with palates corrupted by years of excessive sugar intake. I’ve always been skeptical of their ability to make their fruit notes serve the beer, as opposed to making the beer a simple alcoholic vehicle for the satisfaction of someone’s sweet tooth, which is what they normally wind up doing. But a cherry stout? How sugary could
that possibly be? Pretty sugary, as I was to find out later, but not at all like a normal fruit beer. Whatever this beer is, it’s no blueberry ale or girlie Corona with lime. It pours a deep, dark red, or more appropriately, reddish black, beyond the darkness of ruby or blood. It’s very lightly carbonated with a sparse head that mostly just rings around the glass and forms a temporary, tiny island in the middle of the beer. Cherry aromas are apparent from a distance, but the true coffee and chocolate of the stout come out stronger as you put your nose over it. The flavor is heavy and rich, almost like a bad Black Forest Cherry Cake. The body is malty to the point of being unbalanced, leaving a slightly dry feeling in the mouth. The sugar and the uncarbonated heaviness also give it a sickly sweet quality. By the end of
one bottle it was sitting very poorly on my stomach. I would primarily describe this as a dessert beer, maybe something to drink while you smoke a cigar. Certainly there are people out there who this beer will appeal to, but I simply cannot recommend it.

Sierra Nevada Northern Hemisphere Harvest Ale:

I feel no shame in admitting that I like Sierra Nevada’s flagship pale ale, overrated though it may be. Its dependable flavor comes at a reasonable price, which is a nice calling card despite the fact that it’s not a particularly interesting beer. At around $6 for a 32 oz bottle, Sierra Nevada’s Northern Hemisphere Harvest ale is in the same category. Moderately carbonated with a modest, durable head of tiny bubbles, this harvest ale has a very drinkable medium body. It’s generously hoped with “wet,” or undried hops, but it’s not particularly acidic or citric. Honestly, it could be mistaken for a tame single IPA. I don’t think it deserves all the fuss that it’s big, spiffy bottling suggests (though I admittedly could be missing its complexity), but it’s certainly a decent beer and a relatively good buy.

That’s it for this week. Look forward to future Brew Ha Has branching out, with upcoming spotlights on mead (hopefully), challenging the law with open containers (the law allowing, of course), and fried beer (fried beer!). Until we achieve this bright future I wish you, as always, happy drinking.