Holiday Bash
Raleigh Brewing Company

 

On tap at the brewery. Pours brown with beige head. Taste and aroma is of toasted malt, dark fruit, brown sugar, vanilla, herbal hops. Body is medium and slightly crisp. Finish is long and semi dry. Good brew.

 

 

Look: It pours dark brown with a tan head. Head retention is good.

Smell: It has some nutty aromas with vanilla. There are some chocolate touches with brown sugar.

Taste: It has chocolate flavors up front with nutes. There are vanilla touches with sugar and dark cherries.

Feel: It has a medium body with a lightly bitter aftertaste.

Overall, The spices are blended in well with the malts.

 

 

 

Look: This beer pours an interesting hazy dark brown. It is reminiscent of a porter in looks, but it is described as an ale so I didn't expect it to be such a hazy brown color. If it were any darker it would look like a typical stout. It left a pretty small, tan head after pouring that dissipated quickly, leaving behind lacy bubbles.

Smell: The smell of this beer is heavy with chocolate and caramel notes. It smells like a milk stout to me, with notes of coffee, nuts, and pie.

Taste: This beer tastes pretty delicious! There is a nice combination of chocolate and caramel flavors, with extremely little bitterness. Personally, I like bitter beers, but in this beer the lack thereof wasn't upsetting. It definitely tastes like winter time.

Feel: Mouthfeel on this one was pretty creamy. There wasn't a heavy amount of carbonation and I could easily drink several of these on cold fall/winter evening.

Overall: This beer is a pretty decent offering from Raleigh Brewing. I wish that they would include more information about this beer and what it was trying to be. The look definitely could use some tweaking, as it doesn't appear a beautiful beer, but the taste and feel were nice surprises that would entice me into buying another can.

Tasty with well pronounced spice notes. Full bodied, quite heavy. One of those beers I enjoyed, but I feel 1 is quite enough.