Beer of the Weekend #193: O'Fallon Cherry Chocolate Beer
Duty (aka, the Little Village) has made its monthly call. It is time once again for a series of brown bottle lunches to help decide what beer I will recommend in next month’s issue.
February is loaded with Valentines Day/romance cheesiness (said by a man who has never had a reason to celebrate “V-Day”), so I am thinking a chocolaty stout. I went to Dirty John’s yesterday and built a custom six-pack of candidates with the help of bier (not beer) guy Joe Hotek.
Though not a candidate for my February recommendation because it is seasonal beer likely to be out of stock by then, the first beer I am trying is O’Fallon Cherry Chocolate Beer, brewed by the O’Fallon Brewery of O’Fallon, Missouri.
Serving type: One 12-ounce bottle. No freshness date, or even batch code, on the bottle.
Appearance: Straight pour into a pint glass. The color is a murky brown; it almost looks like it was brewed with unfiltered Mississippi River water. Two fingers of off-white head developed and dissipated quickly to leave a spotted lacing and ring around the edge. There was some yeast sedimentation at the bottom of the bottle, so I guess this truly is a type of wheat beer.
Smell: Chocolate covered cherries. Definitely. The cherry, though, smells more like the processed syrup used at ice cream shops. Very sweet and enticing, and there is also a hint of vanilla.
Taste: Okay… That’s interesting. The dominant flavor is the chocolate covered cherries from the smell, but the taste is not as potent as the aroma; it is masked by an unpleasant element, which reminds me of cream soda or another kind of carbonated beverage. I love cream soda, but not in beer. Very watered down and thin.
Drinkability: Perhaps this is a bad bottle, but this stuff is just not good. It smells great, but the taste is something else. I’ll give them props for the effort, though. I am thankful I did not get a sixer. One bottle is enough.
Fun facts about O’FCCB:
-Style: The O’Fallon website calls it a “Dark Wheat,” but BA classifies it as a Fruit/Vegetable Beer:
-Price: $1.79/bottle at John’s Grocery in Iowa City.
-Serving temperature: 40-45ºF.
-Alcohol content: 5.7 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: The only recommendation on BA is salad.
-IBU: 10.
-Color: 13.3 SRM.
The Quiet Man’s grade: D+.
February is loaded with Valentines Day/romance cheesiness (said by a man who has never had a reason to celebrate “V-Day”), so I am thinking a chocolaty stout. I went to Dirty John’s yesterday and built a custom six-pack of candidates with the help of bier (not beer) guy Joe Hotek.
Though not a candidate for my February recommendation because it is seasonal beer likely to be out of stock by then, the first beer I am trying is O’Fallon Cherry Chocolate Beer, brewed by the O’Fallon Brewery of O’Fallon, Missouri.
Serving type: One 12-ounce bottle. No freshness date, or even batch code, on the bottle.
Appearance: Straight pour into a pint glass. The color is a murky brown; it almost looks like it was brewed with unfiltered Mississippi River water. Two fingers of off-white head developed and dissipated quickly to leave a spotted lacing and ring around the edge. There was some yeast sedimentation at the bottom of the bottle, so I guess this truly is a type of wheat beer.
Smell: Chocolate covered cherries. Definitely. The cherry, though, smells more like the processed syrup used at ice cream shops. Very sweet and enticing, and there is also a hint of vanilla.
Taste: Okay… That’s interesting. The dominant flavor is the chocolate covered cherries from the smell, but the taste is not as potent as the aroma; it is masked by an unpleasant element, which reminds me of cream soda or another kind of carbonated beverage. I love cream soda, but not in beer. Very watered down and thin.
Drinkability: Perhaps this is a bad bottle, but this stuff is just not good. It smells great, but the taste is something else. I’ll give them props for the effort, though. I am thankful I did not get a sixer. One bottle is enough.
Fun facts about O’FCCB:
-Style: The O’Fallon website calls it a “Dark Wheat,” but BA classifies it as a Fruit/Vegetable Beer:
A generic form of flavored beer, some breweries actually use real fruit or veggies, though most use an extract, syrup or processed flavor to give the effect of a particular fruit or vegetable. Usually ales, but with not much ale character to them and commonly unbalanced. Malt flavor is typically hidden with a low hop bitterness to allow the fruit or vegetable to dominate.
-Price: $1.79/bottle at John’s Grocery in Iowa City.
-Serving temperature: 40-45ºF.
-Alcohol content: 5.7 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: The only recommendation on BA is salad.
-IBU: 10.
-Color: 13.3 SRM.
The Quiet Man’s grade: D+.
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