Great Expectations "Derailed"

[GHBWNY]

A friend was having guests from PA last weekend and said they might enjoy a few of my homebrews. So, I took over a sampling of 4 different beers I brewed and left. Apparently, they loved them and left me some PA faire, one of which was one of their local company's "Black Cherry Ale". Yesterday was hot and summery here and a long hard day of work. So, later in the evening, I was ready for a cold one. I opened the Black Cherry Ale expecting nothing short of great things (since they traded this in obvious appreciation for my exclusive homebrew), and poured it in a glass. Looked OK. Smelled OK. I guess.

But the purpose of beer is to taste good. Or so I thought. At first sip, the "black cherry" was, eh... interesting. But at least it was cold. And wet. And I was thirsty. Next sip, in spite of its thirst-slaking potential, I began asking myself, "Why --- and HOW --- am I drinking this?!" The journey into the realm of refreshment had suddenly escalated into a desperate --- albeit, losing --- battle to mentally detach myself from the overwhelming essence of artificial black-ish cherry-ness while the cold and wet had become superfluous entities in my throat. Was the basic beer so bad that they had to add something to short circuit your taste buds while your brain works at spitefully assimilating the response? It wasn't working. It was simply bad beer, bad black, bad cherry, bad flavor. Doesn't someone at the end of the production line taste this before they put it on the market?!

If nothing else, an experience like this makes me that much more appreciative of the continuing quest for better brew. I went into my homebrew closet and repented of my transgressions and asked to be forgiven. And I will be forgiven --- as I forgive others for their bad beer.

 

[afro_lou]

Sounds like they got the better end of that trade.

 

[Arrheinous]

I was just up at Erie Brewing a few months ago. You're talking about Erie Brewing's Derailed.

Derailed was pretty good from the tap as I recall. BeerAdvocate places it as a cream ale but I thought the base beer was something more like an Irish red.

My flight was Railbender scottish ale, Derailed black cherry ale, Mad Anthony's IPA, Misery Bay IPA, and Cease and Desist wee heavy. I thought they were all pretty good and better than Southern Tier which I hit up three hours later.

 

[Silentdrinker]

A friend was having guests from PA last weekend and said they might enjoy a few of my homebrews. So, I took over a sampling of 4 different beers I brewed and left. Apparently, they loved them and left me some PA faire, one of which was one of their local company's "Black Cherry Ale". Yesterday was hot and summery here and a long hard day of work. So, later in the evening, I was ready for a cold one. I opened the Black Cherry Ale expecting nothing short of great things (since they traded this in obvious appreciation for my exclusive homebrew), and poured it in a glass. Looked OK. Smelled OK. I guess.

But the purpose of beer is to taste good. Or so I thought. At first sip, the "black cherry" was, eh... interesting. But at least it was cold. And wet. And I was thirsty. Next sip, in spite of its thirst-slaking potential, I began asking myself, "Why --- and HOW --- am I drinking this?!" The journey into the realm of refreshment had suddenly escalated into a desperate --- albeit, losing --- battle to mentally detach myself from the overwhelming essence of artificial black-ish cherry-ness while the cold and wet had become superfluous entities in my throat. Was the basic beer so bad that they had to add something to short circuit your taste buds while your brain works at spitefully assimilating the response? It wasn't working. It was simply bad beer, bad black, bad cherry, bad flavor. Doesn't someone at the end of the production line taste this before they put it on the market?!

If nothing else, an experience like this makes me that much more appreciative of the continuing quest for better brew. I went into my homebrew closet and repented of my transgressions and asked to be forgiven. And I will be forgiven --- as I forgive others for their bad beer.

I see you had your first Shock Top beer.

 

[LakeErieMonster]

I was just up at Erie Brewing a few months ago. You're talking about Erie Brewing's Derailed.

Derailed was pretty good from the tap as I recall. BeerAdvocate places it as a cream ale but I thought the base beer was something more like an Irish red.

My flight was Railbender scottish ale, Derailed black cherry ale, Mad Anthony's IPA, Misery Bay IPA, and Cease and Desist wee heavy. I thought they were all pretty good and better than Southern Tier which I hit up three hours later.

^I agree. A few times a year we do the beer tasting up there and I always think derailed is tasty, and I normally don't like fruit beers.

 

[Arrheinous]

It definitely made me want to do something on cherries.

Their bottling line is pretty legit too - all of it is enclosed in plexiglass unlike other places. Only thing I could say is that they kept their spent grain around for too long when I was there.

 

[TheSmithsEra]

I've never had a cherry beer I liked, I might as well order a wine cooler, but thats jmo.

 

[GHBWNY]

I've never had a cherry beer I liked, I might as well order a wine cooler, but thats jmo.

Maybe my bias caused me to expect something exceptional in this case, ergo, the derailment. While I'm not a fan of fruit-enhanced beers, a SA Cherry Wheat I had a couple years ago tasted WAY better than this.

 

[TheSmithsEra]

Maybe my bias caused me to expect something exceptional in this case, ergo, the derailment. While I'm not a fan of fruit-enhanced beers, a SA Cherry Wheat I had a couple years ago tasted WAY better than this.

oh boy... if the SA cherry beer tasted better than this then wow!!!

 

[GHBWNY]

Confession/self-rebuttal

OK, here's the deal:

So, I had another one of these Derailed Black Cherry ales last night. It was there; I was here. And [hard swallow] it wasn't too bad. In fact, I have to say it was pretty tasty. So, what happened between the first one and this one? I think I might know.

When I stopped at my friend's house to drop off my hb's, he and his weekend guests from PA were sitting out on the back deck in the sun. A couple days later my friend brought these 2 black cherry ales and a pilsner over to my house that his friends had brought with them from PA. The first --- as previously mentioned --- tasted like artificial black cherry swamp water. But the one I had last night was really decent, to the point I'd have it again.

My analysis of the situation is that the first bottle somehow got skunked. Maybe it sat on the deck table in the sun? Maybe it was in the wrong place in the car as it traveled from PA to NY? Maybe after it arrived, my friend left it in the sun for a couple days before bringing it over? Don't know, but I can definitely say that it had an essence of skunkiness now that I had a good one to compare to.

That said, I must apologize to Erie Brewing Co. and to those who supported them here in this thread. I judged based upon weak evidence. From now on, I will try to have at least TWO of every new beer I have... just to be fair.

 

[Arrheinous]

After reading up on cherry beers: it's usually recommended to avoid black/sweet cherries since they can add a weird quality to the flavor/body.

Maybe black cherry doesn't age as well as tart cherries.