Pumpkin Ale
Lake of Bays Brewing Company

Can: Poured an amber color ale with a medium size foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of cinnamon and cloves with lightly caramelized malt notes. Taste is also a mix of caramelized malt notes with some cinnamon and light cloves notes. Body is about average with good carbonation. Enjoyable pumpkin ale with good drinkability.

Poured no foam but has some fizz on top. Orange brown color that smells heavily of spices, mostly cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. Taste is not bad at all. You get the spices right away followed by some burnt sugar or caramel. Mild grain after taste. A good thing is I don't think it is overly spiced. To me it's the right amount. I can only have maybe 1 of these spiced beers at a time before moving to something else but overall for the 1st drink of the evening it's a decent one. Would consider picking this one up again.

At my lady Pamela's house; canned and chilled, from my favourite LCBO at The Roundhouse Centre in nearby Windsor. My second beer from the Baysville, ON brewery.

 

473 mL can from the LCBO; dated Aug 24 2021 and served barely chilled. Lake of Bays once had a pumpkin ale in their (now defunct) Wild North series with a nearly identical word-for-word description on its label. I am presuming this to be an evolution of that brew, if not quite the exact same recipe.

Pours a deep, clear copper-amber colour, generating one finger of smooth, foamy, off white-coloured head that fades within two minutes; it leaves behind a thin collar and a filmy layer on the surface, with a fair bit of sponge print-patterned lace left stuck to the glass afterwards. Cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla on the nose, with additional notes of brown sugar, bready malts, graham cracker pie crust and pumpkin pie filling.

Nothing out of the ordinary here - brown sugar and toasted bread at the front end, with hints of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice close behind. Grassy hops, cinnamon and pumpkin precede a spicy-sweet ginger snap aftertaste that doesn't linger. Medium in body, with low carbonation that softly agitates the surface of the palate, resulting in a smooth, satisfying mouthfeel. As with most pumpkin ales, one can was about the right amount for me - anything more is excessive.

Final Grade: 3.63, a B grade. You could do worse than Lake of Bays' Pumpkin Ale - it drinks like an amber first, with the spiced ale and pumpkin aspects trailing in second and third. Not what I'd call a memorable example of its style, and I don't really have any strong feelings one way or the other, but there's nothing inherently poor about it - at worst, it's mundane, and at best, it's acceptable for what it is. I've definitely had better pumpkin ales, but I wouldn't discourage others from giving this one a shot... who knows, I might even pick it up again this year.

Sept 16 2025

Very ordinary across the board. Drinks like a common amber. Not a lot of pumpkin in this one, precious little else. Inoffensive, unexciting.

 

Hazy deep amber with a modest head and cap. Sweet vanilla and spice nose. Medium sweet malt body with mild pumpkin spicing. Good crispness especially concerning its age. Mild and OK.