Rohrbachs Kaceys Kristmas Ale

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

Visiting the Rochester area, I've kind of taken a liking to trying the Rohrbach Brewing Company products. Last night, my wife and our friends stopped by the Rohrbach brewery to chat it up over some brews. One of the beers that caught my interest was the Kacey's Kristmas Ale. Advertised as a "chocolate covered cherry beer", I figured I'd have to give this one a whirl.

The beer was brought out to the table in a pint glass and had a darker brown color to it with a small, light off-white head. Held up to the light there were darker ruby red highlights around the edge of the bottle. The aroma was a little on the disappointing side. I thought it would be packed with chocolate malts and dark fruit smells, but even after letting it sit for a bit, I didn't pick up much in the aroma. There were some feint malt aromas, but they weren't anything special.

The flavor was pretty solid. Nothing too great, but solid. I definitely picked up on the chocolate roasted malts used in the beer. These malts had a slight sweet taste to them. The cherry flavor didn't really pop out that much. If anything I thought I picked up on a little honey and possibly nutmeg in there. The beer drank well and was fairly smooth.

Bottom line, this one didn't live up to the hype in the description, but it wasn't a horrible beer. In fact it was well crafted and solid. It just wasn't exceptional in my book.