This is one of the transitional beers for people who like domestics but wanna try a pumpkin beer. It's not overly heavy on the spices and has a good pumpkin flavor. There wasn't much head and it was just a little flat, kinda like when you're at a keg party with plastic cups and you held that one just a little too long... so it's got that straight from draft to plastic cup feeling. Kinda watery. Oh well. At $10.99 a sixer I expected a lil more, but the higher ABV sure helps. Again, this is a good transitional pumpkin pie beer with just an extra smack of maltiness. Middle of the road. And that guy on the bottle! He reminds me of Robin Williams. The bottle used to have a jack o'lantern roasting marshmallows over a fire raging from inside his own head!
21. ICHABOD PUMPKIN ALE (New Holland Brewing Company) ABV: 5.5%
I was noticing certain bottles tell us the beer's brewed with pumpkin and spices, with spices added. That concerns me. In this case, though, it turns out to be pretty damn good. Aromas of spice fill the air upon opening, but I don't think it's overpowering. The beer has a nice copper color with a creamy long-lasting head when poured into a glass.
This is a roasted pumpkin seed beer. The flavor is still spicy, but that malted roastiness really sets this apart from pumpkin pie beers. It has the complexity to pull off the aroma of spice with the initial flavor of roasted pumpkin seeds followed by the pumpkin pie flavor in the back. I dig it and it's just about everywhere in the fall. The Porter in L5P had this on draft, and for some reason the spices really stood out front that time. I'll stick to bottles.
22. FALL HORNIN' PUMPKIN ALE (Anderson Valley Brewing Company) ABV: 6%
This is one of my favorites, and it doesn't even have anything to make it stand out! Yup, that's the magic ticket, nothing horrible to make it stand out. Instead, it's a well-balanced pumpkin pie beer with a wonderful Dark Amber color and creamy orange head that is poundable right outta the can. I just find the spice factor to be kept in check here and a focus on bringing some malt out. I consider this to be on the sweeter pumpkin pie side more than anything, but it does it so unobtrusively that it's hard not to consider it genius. I like Dogfish Head and the original Pumpkinfest for the darker side of pumpkin pie, and this is more on the lighter side like Harpoon minus the unfiltered yeastiness. In the top 5 for it's sessionability and availability.
Once again I'm saying CHEERS! Til next time, which I promise will be very soon!
....Here it is, the RJ Rocker bottle starring Robin Williams.
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