Thirsty Bear Aged Cherry Ale

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

Sampled Falling Rock, GABF week 2008
The beer arrives with a dark, deep amber tinged, brown color and is topped by a frothy, tan colored head. The aroma has a nice full, tart cherry note to it that is rich and complex in its characterization of the cherry. Some woody oak aromas add a nice bit of spice that boosts the complexity a bit.

The beer is sweeter than I expected, but does have an overall impression of being dry, especially given the apparent tartness. Despite the lack of overt sweetness, this beer manages an amp'd up, almost candied, though somehow subtle, cherry character. Chewy cherry skin tannins add some structure and definitely coat the teeth a bit. this is very malty and rich, but this is effectively cut by the substantial tartness. This gets quite a bit more wood focused when paired with my quesadillas; this brings out flavors of spicy wood, a touch of vanillin and a finish of woody black pepper and butterscotch. Actually the food puts the wood at the forefront, even above the cherry notes, but the tartness still manages to tie everything together.

This is quite nice, I was definitely surprised how much lurking oak character was in this beer. This was definitely a nice surprise, as I almost didn't order a beer at all before my food arrived.