Fruit beer generally comes in a lighter style, but Cherry Dark just goes to show that fruit beer has a dark side, and it's wonderful.
A bitter-style ale that's infused with cherries, this Titanic brew is insanely quaffable and to be completely honest, 330ml cans just aren't big enough. Titanic need to start selling this in 500ml bottles at the very minimum. It uses a combination of Slovenian and US hops to create a trans-Atlantic combination that will win over the most critical of beer fans.
Part of their core range, this is on a par with their Plum Porter, another fruit beer that takes the style even deeper into the dark side of brewing, visually speaking.
The aroma is unmistakably cherry, but it's a lot more subtle than when you encounter it in a sour or a lighter beer. It's more nuanced, combining with a malty aroma that hints at sweetness, but reminds you it's still a bitter.
It pours a deep ruby colour, if you hold it up to the light it looks like standard bitter but there's a red hue to it that must come from the cherries, giving it a stunning colour that i've only ever seen on the walls of the kind of people who have libraries in their houses.
The flavour is malty, with a hedgerow fruitiness and a little spiced fruit flavour that would be a very good bitter, if it weren't for the cherries. The cherries move it to another level, with a subtle sweetness in the flavour helping to creatge an extra dimension to the taste.
The aftertaste is where the cherries really make a difference though. Once the malt, spiciness and touch of almond fade, you get a delightful cherry flavour that again is much more subtle than a sour, but feels more refined somehow.
It's easy drinking, which is dangerous in any beer, but this is one that I could happily polish off a few cans of in a session and have absolutely no regrets about.
The can is fairly straightforward, sticking mostly to the Titanic Brewery lavel style with their quarter-wheel on the label which houses the beer name and, underneath the name, three adjectives about what flavours to expect.
The white-on-black style in blocks is quite striking, and is instantly recognisable as Titanic even amongst the busiest can designs on the shelf. It's the kind of can label with no obvious front, the style wrapping around most of the can togive it an all-rounded feel.
There's loads of information on the can too, everything from a bit about Titanic's history as a brewery to the kind of flavours to expect from this particular beer. Like the beer itself, it's pretty much a masterclass in how to label your beer.
You can get a pack of 12 online at Titanic Brewery's store for £26.35, which works out at around £2.20 per can. And trust me, you're going to want to stock up on these.
If you don't want to get that many at once then you might be able to find them in your local bottle or beer shop, but that's less likely.
