Rumpkin
Avery Brewing Company

This is a huge beer with an intense pumpkin and spice flavor. It’s the booziest barrel aged pumpkin beer I’ve ever had. Both the barrel and gourd elements are executed well, but I’m not sure they go together.

Bottled August 17th, 2016.
As I watched the beer pour from bottle to glass, my first thought was "this is a very good looking beer". There was a vibrancy to the orange / brown color that I don't often see, and that I really liked. Unfortunately, in my eagerness to see if I could drum up some head on the pour, I forgot that this is 5.5 years old, and an aggressive pour may not be the best idea. While the pour did result in a finger or so of fizzy short-lived head, it also resulted in a significant amount of sediment bouncing around my glass like a bunch of 6 year old kids hopped up on Red Bull in a bouncy castle. Some people don't mind floaties....I'm not one of them. After suppressing my gag reflex, in an effort to be as fair as possible in rating this, I won't dock it too much for the floaties. It is still an attractive beer if you step back a few feet and un-focus your eyes like you had to do with one of those pictures from 20 years ago that looked like a bunch of dots until you saw them just right. Thus endeth the longest description I've ever given of a beer's appearance.

Aroma rolls out of the glass in waves, and is all pumpkin & spice. I'm not getting any rum barrel, but this still smells really good, especially given its age.

The taste is where this goes a bit sideways. The pumpkin takes the role of Grand Marshal in this parade, with plenty of spice riding along in the old convertible throwing cheap candy to the kids. If I were locking in on just those pumpkin and spice notes, I think I'd like this beer more. Unfortunately, there's an alcohol burn to it that plays the role of the local insurance agent who is also walking in this parade but adding no apparent value (i.e. he's not even throwing out candy, he's just walking with a banner advertising his business). I can't put a finger on it, but the beer is just lacking sufficient nuance. If you put this in a different shaped bottle and called it "Pumpkinschlager", or "Pumple Minze" you could sell cheap shots of this to college kids. It stays on the tongue for a long time in a vaguely unpleasant way.

Overall, glad to have tried it, but not my jam.

12oz bottled on August 1, 2017. ABV on this one is 16.9%. Sample from the brewery. Apologies to Adam Avery for taking so long. (Consider it unpaid research into aging your beer.)

Rusty, muddy, opaque with a thin creamy lace that clings a bit and sticks around until the last drop (damn impressive given the age on this beer). Nose if full of pumpkin pie spices, vanilla, and rum. Viscous, smooth, creamy body. It's quite thick and a bit chewy. Flavor is absolutely packed with more pumpkin pie spices (dustings of ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg), tons of vanilla, oak, sweetened coconut, caramelized pumpkin, candy-like sweetness, syrupy even, with toffee, molasses, and a boozy hit of rum. Slight oxidation that's easily missed, but blends well with everything else that's going on if detected. Flavors linger for a while with a spicy, peppery note.

As of this post, it's been 1,649 days since this beer was bottled and it remains intense AF. And, as far as pumpkin beers go, Rumpkin is hands down one of the best, most unique, and stands as a reminder of what Avery was back in the day: a heavy-hitting, non-apologetic, brewer of big, bold beers. AKA - an OG extreme beer brewer.

I absolutely love this beer. It said what it said.

 

 

 

 

 

2017 bottle

Look-Dark amber like a traditional rum would have, little to no head on the beer as expected with such a high ABV, moves around in the glass almost like a light syrup? Interesting.

Smell-Sugar, Spice, and boozy I do not know if I even liked the smell. It was definitely interesting.

Taste- Like a boozy syrup no kidding with spices thrown in. As it warmed up the booziness takes over even more. I feel like this would go great in a cake batter or something.

Feel-Thick like syrup, mine had mild carbonation, spicy and sweet up front with a creamy mouthfeel, and a over bearing burn on the finish.

Overall-Not a fan. Would like to try a more fresh product possibly? The 17% ABV likely went up over the years sitting in the bottle for another 3.5-4 years. Would try a more fresh bottle or if I wanted to try something like a unique cake batter that may work well with this.

 

Taster at bottle share, 2015 vintage. Aroma brings some pumpkin pie notes, sweet, hint of spice. Taste hits with a the right amount of booze, sweet, and strong. Nice savory notes top off the whole package. 2021update: 2015 vintage still rocks.

I found a bottle at my local specialty beer liquor store. Date on the bottle says 2017. 4 years aged on top of what it comes fresh already. Yikes! Has some chunks in the bottom. Hoping the 16.9% will keep it still great. After sipping it for awhile it still taste pretty dang good. Wish there wasn't chunks at the bottom but towards the end this beer starts putting you down for the count at the 16.9%. Would like to try one fresh to compare..

 

A: Poured into a snifter to a deep golden beer that is topped by a two finger dense and slightly rocky head that fades quickly to a collar around the edge of the glass with minimal lacing.
S: Smells of pumpkin with some warming spices, vanilla, and definite rum barrel notes.
T: Taste is pumpkin and caramel with some warming spices, vanilla, and rum barrels with some hints of molasses. On the swallow there's a ton of warming spices, pumpkin, caramel, vanilla, and lingering rum barrel.
M: The beer has a full body with a feel that is slightly syrupy. Carbonation is low but adequate for the style while the beer has a drying finish.
O: Overall this is how pumpkin beers should be done. Great flavors and a nice amount of complexity make this one that is very enjoyable to drink. It ages really well too. Worth a try if you can find it and want to try a pumpkin beer that's on the extreme side of things.

 

Oct-14-2018

 

L: Poured from a bottle to a pint glass. Had an orange / brown color and a mostly cloudy consistency. There was a quarter inch of foamy, somewhat long-lasting head. Above average lacing.

S: A big, powerful aroma of pumpkin, booze, spices, malt, molasses, and ginger.

T: Tasted of a decent amount of rum (and its accompanying barrel), a tinge of ginger (not a huge element), lots of spices (cinnamon and nutmeg, in particular), a bit of molasses (quite sweet), and a decent amount of pumpkin, of course. Like the aroma, the flavor is big, boozy, and complex. It's quite well-rounded and satisfying. Delicious.

F: A fair amount of carbonation with a smooth, warm finish. Medium- to full-bodied.

O: An excellently made beer. Drinkable.

Poured from a 2018 dated bottle into the test glass
A - Still, deep mahogany color, thin ring clings to the glass wall. Carbonation struggles upward.
S - Alcohol, fusel wrapped spice sack, strong grain base, raisan, toffee, caramel, cinnamon, nutmeg, Alcohol.
T - Follows the nose well, deep, spice notes, strong malt base, spices dance by on waves of sweet malt. Caramel, toffee again, brown sugar, late harvest cigar wrap tobacco. Vanilla reduction served over pumpernickle toast.
M- Big and slick, oily, carbonation has no chance. Linger is rich , complex , compelling. Sweet but quick to dry, Luxardo Cheerie comes to mind
O - Wow, thats an experience. One worth experiencing, craft cocktail Or craft beer.