Pumpkin Junction
Reuben's Brews

03/25/2017

 

 

 

22oz into a tulip. Pours a deep clear brown w/ a 1-finger head.

Aroma is bitter roasty malt, coffee, the vegetal essence of pumpkin, and spice.

Taste follows nose. Cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin, roasty malt, a touch of coffee/chocolate.

Mouthfeel is smooth, medium bodied, nice satisfying finish.

Overall a really nice pumpkin porter with a good balance of flavors.

Poured from 22oz bomber into a tulip.

Appearance: nearly black with only some dark brown highlights around the edges when held up to the light. Head is a finger of frothy dark-tan foam that leaves a good lace on the glass. Quite good.

Smell: mildly sweet and pumpkiny with a bit of a coffee nose. Not bad at all, but a dash underwhelming.

Taste: definitely a lot more going on in the flavor than in the aroma. Sweet, but not too sweet, with a good pumpkin and spice character along with just the right dash of coffee. I like it.

Mouthfeel: body is surprisingly light with a strong carbonation but a lot more of a loose bubbles feel than a nice creaminess. Could be better.

Overall: despite my disappointment with the texture, the flavor is really working for me. It's quite a drinkable brew.

 

 

 

 

Dark almost black body with a soft light brown head. Settles into petri cultures quickly enough but leaves plenty of reminders along the glass as well.

Nose is straight up roasted coffee and bakers chocolate. Mildly creamy but mostly roasty coffee.

A little overcarbonated for me, but that's a fairly minor gripe. Starts out with a freshly pumpkin creaminess, maybe some spices. Some bitter hops and the booze is apparent.
As it warms, it becomes significantly more enjoyable, at least for me. While I was a little underwhelmed initially, letting it get to its own preferred delivery temp evokes more of that creamy side. Never fully committing to sweet, but there's definitely some vanilla and other not-quite-candied flavours. I would prefer a little thicker body personally, but I also just really tend towards the thicky thicky thicky thick. Beers that is. The raosty notes come forth. Smoothe brewed coffee. The pumpkin is there but it's basically more of a balancer. Chocolate. Finish is creamy but bitter. This is basically a really solid coffee porter with a creamy pumpkin to balance and temper the rest of it.

Poured into a Reuben's Brew small snifter. Pours pitch black, appearing opaque in the glass, with a thin tan head that dissipates to patches. Aroma of toasted malt, coffee, hints of caramel and light pumpkin. Flavor is dominated by slightly sweet dark toasted malt and coffee, hints of lactose, with light pumpkin pie spicing and light pumpkin. Finishes with moderate grassy hop bitterness and dark toasted malt with hints of spices. Medium bodied with light creaminess, much better mouth feel than expected from the faint head. A novel profile for a stout/pumpkin beer, the coffee adds an excellent new element to the base stout. The pumpkin is rather subtle here, but there is enough to support the labeling as a "latte" stout. Nicely balanced malt and coffee. Great idea, well realized. I think that stouts make the best base for coffee ales and the pumpkin adds a bit of mellowing to the finish. Well done.