Carolina Brewery Santas Secret

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

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.

On tap. Orangy--red appearance. Light smelling. Orange, coriander, cinnamon and alspice flavors.

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.

On tap at Linda’s in Chapel Hill. Red coloring with a small off-white head. The mouthfeel was very full with a flavor full of orange, ginger, and cinnamon. A great brew for a cold day.

On tap. Clear orange-red color with foamy white head. Good aroma of cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange, maybe some ginger or coriander. Spice flavors are well balanced, but thin mouthfeel makes it seem too sweet. tasty but more like a cookie than a warming winter ale.

Draft at the brewery. Smells heavenly of cloves, cinnamon, brown sugar. and everything wonderful. The first flavors to hit the tongue match the nose, but after a few sips its gets thinner and thinner. By the end it gets sour and watery, but still tastes lovely on the tongue. It seems like they decided to super flavor a beer that didn’t have the body to withstand the onslaught of spices that they had in mind. Nice effort for a superficial beer.

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

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....