Otter Creek - Wolaver's Organic Pumpkin Ale. Same as last year, but they dropped the "Will Stevens" from the name and changed the label.. optimistic for a slight change in recipe too? Let's see. Already a bit more amber than last year's pour and far less carbonated. A bit more spice and malt to the nose than last year as well. So far so good! Again, despite being touted as brewed with 100% organic Vermont pumpkins, this is still a very spice-forward brew. A bit more evened out with a more pronounced malt profile helps a bit, as does a slight hop finish. A better brew this year, for sure, but not amazingly standout...but don't think they were going for such. A solid pumpkin offering.
Rock Art Brewery - EXTREME Pumpkin Imperial Spruce Stout. Yep.. I said SPRUCE. With pumpkin. In a stout. YES, please! "This ain't for no mama's boy or daddy's girl" How could anyone turn this up?? 8.0% ABV and 50 IBUs, this is one killer dark brown pour with a huge mocha head. A sort of subdued nose for an Imperial Stout, but definite coffee and chocolate notes, a little malt sweetness that may be from the pumpkin in fact. A little bit of hops poke through towards the back end, evidence of the 50 IBUs. And the taste..now this was a unique pumpkin brew! There's equal parts pumpkin, nutmeg/clove spice, dark malts and a sharp, earthy bitterness towards the end. For sure that's the spruce. It adds a dimension to this brew that I've never tasted and certainly only works with the imperial..but damn does it work well! I've had a better pumpkin stout, but not as unique a one.. go find this!!
I'll finish off the night with a brand new entry to the pumpkin category this year.. Harpoon - UFO Pumpkin. 5.9% ABV and 20 IBUs. Harpoon Brewery and their UFO lineup have always been rather solid, large-scale beers, so I had to try this. Lightly spiced, less so than the category mainstay Pumpkinhead, with nice hints of toasty, biscuit-like malts and a faint pumpkin. A super crisp bubbly pour, but in a good way. Not as watery or spice-foward as the Pumpkinhead with enough malt backbone mimicking pie crust to have it hold its own against the top-tier craft pumpkins. Hints of vanilla come through here and there along with a mild piney hops through and through. Finishes a bit dry and crisp, very refreshing..begs for another taste. With the overabundance of pumpkins in the last few years, many places pump them out just to say they have one. I assume Harpoon wanted a piece of the [pumpkin] pie as well, but they pushed to make a rather good pumpkin beer while maintain its true Harpoon/UFO identity.
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