Otter Creek Cerveza Cacao

Formerly brewed at Otter Creek Brewing
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Middlebury, Vermont USA

Date: 04/20/2006
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting

hazy amber, thin fine white head that quickly disapates, sweet spiced brown sugar aroma, sugary flavor without being very sweet, nice spices to balance, lots of complex unidentifable flavors,
-------- /> Date: 12/12/2006
Mode: bottle

the flavor has dried out quite a bit from both the aroma and flavor leaving a lightly spiced ale, was better and more complex when it was younger

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 14/20
Rating: 3.4/5.0
Drinkability: 8/10
Score: **4

(22oz bottle) Crystal clear light amber body with rapidly diminished light amber body. Aroma is medium sweet, caramel/bread, some vegetal, light vanilla, cocoa. Taste is medium sweet, caramel, bread, some spice, cocoa, light vegetal. Light-medium body, alcohol well hidden. Similar to a Vienna.

Pours a clear light copper bronze with a thin wispy off-white head. Has a dry, earthy and lightly grainy bittersweet toasty caramel aroma. Body starts with some sugary candy-like sweetness, a touch of dry earthy caramel and some English bittering hops. I really don’t taste much chocolate here. Maybe a touch of milk chocolate in the finish, but otherwise pretty uneventful.

Pours brown with a thin tan head. Smells of chocolate and caramel. Tastes earthy with a tea like finish and a hint of caramel.

Copper pour, with some caramel malt in the aroma and flavor, plus some slight cacao, spices, and hopcit in aroma and flavor. Not balanced well, and although I applaud the originality, this one doesn’t work well for me.

22 oz bottle, purchased from my place of employment, City Market in Burlington, VT. Allagash stem glass, cellar temperature. Big creamy snow-white head fizzes, and dies fairly quickly atop the clear, copper-amber body....muted spiciness takes time to manifest, mostly simple pale malts evident in the shy aroma....body is fairly malty and full, moderately sweet with some vanilla evident but sadly no cocoa that I could detect, somewhat harsh seasonings --yes, maybe a hint of ground cinnamon -- towards the finish (though no hop presence) and a bit of mineral quality...alcohol not apparent at all, very drinkable but...carbonation is low and only vaguely tingly, which is appropriate I guess....not much there however that makes you want to drink it. Though I am not a fan of this brewer generally I had some hopes after the pleasant Double Decker--shattered, alas.

Poured a clear copper color with a thin off-white head. The aroma smells like a fish tank. Like if you look down into the top and sniff. Cinnamon and some fruit as well. Flavor was malty and bland with a light spice and dry finish.

2006 bomber consumed (partially) on 3/30/06
Muzzlehatch warned me about this one, but I didnt listen. Fizzy, off-white head atop a maize-golden body, poor retention, no lacing, filtered, plentiful bubbles in the liquid.
Cocoa powder dryness rises up with dry, stale graham crackers, vanilla that smells more like a biproduct of short lagering times than true vanilla, and a bit of grainy, dry, attenuated maltiness. Flavor is heavily dry, overattenuated, with a filtered texture that seems at odds with the heavily drying cacao, vanilla and cinnamon. Really it just tastes like sucking on a cinnamon stick, with soggy, hay-like hops and obnoxious overcarbonation not so much too much carbonation, but just really large bubbles). Watery, bland, no malt depth whatsoever. I left the bottle out overnight to see what happened. The next day it was decidedly sweeter, without all of the carbonation to break up the texture, and a light chocolate syrup-like flavor could be discerned, but the beer character was few and far between. Didn’t catch the alcohol though. I think they would have had better results by just using chocolate. I’m no fan of sweet beers, but this one is just painfully dry.