Magna Cucurbita
Mike Hess Brewing - Miramar

This beer is a 10/10! It's creamy, smooth, and slightly spiced without the extra bitterness. Hands down the best pumpkin stout I've ever tasted!

October 11th, 2016 - Typically I really enjoy Hess' darker brews, but they get made so often that there's sometimes room for variation. I'm seeing that here with this dose off the Magna Cucurbita. The glass looks like a freely poured bottle of soy sauce, and features a slightly roasted aroma and nutty nose, with lots of hazelnut. Roasted pumpkin makes an unexpected appearance in the flavor, with a depth befitting of the season. But there's not much sweetness to help pair off with the vegetal squash. Instead, it tastes more like the pumpkin has been roasted, and with the somewhat low-carbonation the flavor profile feels a little off.

22oz bottle served in a FW Snifter glass
Noted 11/01/15

A solid holiday seasonal right here

A black bodied stout adorned with a smallish finger of beige cream. Light moderate streaks and a few dots of lace are left tracked to my glass.
Smells of toasted malt and pumpkin flesh with dark bread, coffee, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, milk chocolate, and a whisper of smoky char.
Robust flavor of earthiness to it from the hops and charred malts with moments of soft baked pumpkin and chocolate bread. The spices come through clear and present without tipping over the scales. Cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger are most pronounced and melding nicely.
The body touts a medium amount of filling to it with a nice creamy consistency and well evened carbonation. Lightly sticky on the palate with a finish that is lighter with only a touch of grittiness and roast bitterness there. Certainly not enough to detract.
Nice balance of the sweetness to roast malt, pumpkin, and holiday spices. Everyone is playing together nicely here. Would have again.

 

Pours a deep black with a creamy ya head that has good retention. Smells of dark toasted malt, cinnamon, nutmeg, smoked meat. Dark and toasty with some smoky notes, notes of cinnamon, nutmeg & clove. Chocolate and roast on the finish. Medium body and carbonation, foamy mouthfeel and finish, nice pumpkin stout

 

 

 

$ 6.99/22 oz bomber from Craft Shack
Undated bottle at 45 degrees into snifter
Aroma faint odor of pumpkin spices, mostly cinnamon
Head average (3.5 cm, aggressive pour), light brown, creamy, slowly diminishing to 3 mm ring and layer
Lacing poor – few small islands of tiny bubbles
Body dark brown, clear
Flavor some roasted malt, some cinnamon; no hops, no alcohol, no diacetyl
Palate medium, creamy, soft carbonation

Appearance 4, Aroma 4, Flavor 4.25, Palate 4.25, Overall 4.25