Punkin’ Ale
9 Sep
Name – Punkin Ale
Country – United States
Type – Pumpkin Ale
Appearance – Pours a clear copper amber color with a little white head that was gone pretty quick.
Smell – Spices, spices and more spices. Cinnamon and nutmeg are definitely there (as the bottle says) and you get a pumpkin scent.
Taste – Slightly sweet taste up front, almost like brown sugar then the pumpkin comes in but it is not over powering. There are cinnamon and nutmeg spiciness to it as well but again not over powering.
I am usually not a fan of pumpkin anything really let alone pumpkin beers. They tend to be overbearing on the spices. This one, while containing it’s fair share of spices, has a nice subtle sweetness to it as well that seems to even things out and make it bearable to a non-pumpkin fan. Also I got to finally use my brand new Dogfish Head glass as I wanted my first use to be a DFH brew. While I am in no way now a pumpkin beer fan I found this one some what enjoyable. Maybe one or two for the season.
Overall Grade – B-
Sweet glass…it’s got a unique shape.
The other day at the store pumpkin beers were all I could see. I decided I should try at least one. Weyerbacher had an imperial pumkin 22oz for 4.99 I thought about trying but just couldn’t do it. I’ll give this DFH one a try, since DFH is one of my favorite breweries!
It also has an etching of the logo in the bottom of the glass to allow bubbles to flow easier. What will those guys think of next?
I’ve seen the Weyerbacher one but Imperial in the same scares me into thinking it would be way to big on the pumpkin or spices. I’m satisfied with my choice of DFH’s and I think you will be too.
I really need to update my glassware…I know I’m missing out on flavor/aroma.
Yeah, I thought that too about the weyerbacher. Since it has a higher ABV I was hoping the malt flavor drowned out some of the pumkin…or they loaded it up with pumkin to compensate.
the bruery has a fall beer that utilizes sweet potato instead of pumkin…I wouldn’t mind giving that a try.
Sweet potato? That sounds really interesting.
Our next Beer Brawl, coming up on the 14th, will be all Pumpkin Beers. I was hoping to find this beer to include it since you’re almost guaranteed to at least get a quality beer from DFH. Any other Pumpkin beers you guys recommend? (I love pumpkin pie!)
Shipyard’s Pumpkinhead seems to be really popular down here.
I just tried this one myself, and I’d agree with Mike completely. Its pretty good compared to some of the other pumpkin ales I’ve tried. I also tried Brooklyn’s Post Road Pumpkin Ale which was decent as well – not overdone either.
Can’t help but be another voice of agreement. This is one of the best Pumpkin Ales I’ve had.