Dispatches from Cherry Street

The beer runs that accompany visits to my parents don’t generate the new finds of former years. Most brewers across the Southeast have distribution that reaches Nashville, and most of coveted craft brewers that skipped Tennessee now sell here (Bell’s, Cigar City, Alpine). 

Also, I've become a more cautious shopper. I’m usually wary of canned or bottled IPA from unfamiliar brewers due to age issues. Every buy a six-pack of IPA from an unknown brewer to find no trace of hops? I have been burned enough that I now skip new IPAs unless I can confirm their shelf life (on this trip, Anchor's Blackberry Daze IPA).

Not being a a strict hophead. I enjoy hoppy beers as much as I like beers driven by malt, yeast and barrel influence. Going back to my college days, Belgian styles remain my first choice.

As I hunted for a few large-format bottles to bring home, I stumbled onto some random bottles from Cherry Street Brewing Cooperative, a homebrewing club that evolved into a craft brewery in Forsyth County.

With my family, Nancy and I have visited the adjoining Rick Tanner's Grille and Bar for beers and lunch. Seeing them on the shelf at a package store, their Belgian-style tripel and coconut porter returned to Tennessee with me.

Tripel En Blanc is the kind of beer I taste too rarely yet wish I could access easily. Paler Belgian styles don’t receive barrel treatment with the regularity of stouts and quadruples, but the beer influence can hit a paler beer like a tripel in a few months. At 9 percent ABV, it’s big but never bruising, always subtle in its potency.

Aged five months in Chardonnay barrels, the tripel takes on new characters. The nose is dry and focused, sharpened by barrel aging. The oak nudges in here. Melon and passion fruit abound along with influence from the coriander and orange peel. The dry lemon character is strong, but the barrel proves stronger. On the finish, the vanilla and oak kick up more strongly than on the front end. The oak adds a different spiciness than typical tripel recipe.

A creaminess wraps these disparate flavors together. It could be refined by aging the beer for different terms in the barrel – five months might push the oak to overwhelm the more subtle tripel notes. But it’s small batch, barrel-aged tripel, a beer I will never turn away.

In case I don’t encounter other tripels, I bought a second Tripel En Blanc to lie down for six months or so. I’m interested to see how the flavors evolve after a little cellar time.

My cravings for darker styles are less frequent but Cherry Street found the sweet spot with its seductively complex porter. This porter would be a rich, opaque beer with coconut alone. But Cherry Street includes vanilla beans and dates, widening the flavor profile. Toasted coconut and chocolate flare up from the nose. Any sweetness rolls under the dark roast finish, with notes of coffee and nuts.

From its suburban locale, Cherry Street pushes against stylistic boundaries with its brews. If I’m not hunting down holy grails of craft brewing on my next Atlanta trip, at least I can hunt the latest from Cherry Street.