Carolina Brewery Santas Secret

Brewed by Carolina Brewery
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Chapel Hill, North Carolina USA

Name: Santa’s Secret
Date: 02/02/2008
Mode: Draft
Source: Brewpub

Appearance: clear copper, fine beige head,
Aroma: sweet caramel malt aroma with lots of ginger and cinamon aroma,
Flavor: rich sweet malt candy flavor, lots of ginger and cinamon, light bitterness comes out of the spices,

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 12/20
Rating: 3.1/5.0
Drinkability: 6/10
Score: *4

Pours a transparent copper ruby with a stringy wispy-lacing white head. Sweet cinnamon potpourri nose has some honey, ginger and clove character with some light fruitiness. Body starts brown sugary sweet and well-spiced with some cherry notes towrad a drier, crisp finish. A nice winter warmer.

Draught at the brewpub. Clear orange color with a thin white head. Smelled and tasted of banana bread, vaniila, and nutmeg. A bit over-carbonated, but a very nice Holiday beer.

Draught at the brewery. Pours a copper amber with a mild haze. The nose is sweet and spicy, nutmeg, allspice, malty sweetness, some leafy character. The flavor puts this as like an amber ale with a prominent sweet spice profile. Mild sweetness from the malt, allspice and nutmeg on the flavor, mild hoppy spicy bitterness. Crisp hop bitterness on the palate. Decent brew.

On Tap at the Brewery. Pours a light amber with a small white head. Nutmeg and cinnamon overwhelm the palate and flavor is this light bodied spicy winter ale. Very drinkable and not all together offensive, but still very much lacking in the substance category. This brewpub really needs to improve their selection. They won a Great American Beer Fest award for their English-style IPA, and didnt even have it on tap or avavilable in the bottle. C’mon local brewpub, im trying to support you....

Pint at brewpub. Good aroma, sweet & spice. Cinnamon & nutmeg. Toffee/caramel. Clean coppery orange color. Little to no head or lace. Spiced flavor, like aroma spices rule the day. Medium body, creamy smooth mouthfeel, spiced sweet finish. Tasty,easy to drink but I dunno. Seems kind of a common attempt at a winter offering

Light copper color with thin creamy off white head. Aroma has nutmeg and hints of cinamon. Flavor is malty, slightly sweet, slightly spicey, a bit overcarbed with a bit of metallicy finish and subtle bitterness.

From notes 12/1 and 12/23/03: 12/1/03: Pours an attractive clear copper color with just a thin wisp of head. No lacing for me. Aromas are succulent! Wow there is a LOT going on here! Cinnamon and nutmeg stand out for me. Some peppery zesty spice too. Orange? Orange peel? More pints will be needed to research this. Just too many aromas to mention. The flavor appears to have a rich malty backbone, however the scents that were all-too-wonderful almost overwhelm the flavor here. A little too much in the way of spiciness in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good and tasty, but a little too much. Mouthfeel is a touch thin. There seems to be a relative lack of body. Borderline watery. Aftertaste of those wintry spices: cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, pine. Allspice? More orange? Sheesh, this will take a few more visits to nail down the busy-body nature of this beer. 12/23/03: Seems like a majority of cinnamon today. Very clean and not super-sweet. Easily drinkable.