Happy Jack Pumpkin Ale
Heavy Riff Brewing Company

Aroma is pumpkin/spices and vanilla/very pumpkin pie, plus slightly perfumed. The flavor is fruit/unexpected citrus, malts and a mildly sweet pumpkin pie finish.

Gorgeous, colorful, fun artwork. Pumpkin ales are extremely varied. Some breweries go with fake flavors and/or syrupy sweetness. This one flirts worth both while staying responsibly within bounds, opting for a vanilla-caramel-forward palate, almost butterscotch, while keeping a moderate sweet balanced with a spicy bitterness that spikes in-between pretty pleasant pumpkin vanilla swells. This does verge on candle-y in moments, but I still enjoyed it overall.

Copper colored with a lightly hazy complexion. There’s a trace of beige around two thirds of the rim and covering a fifth of the top. I’m smelling nutmeg, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice. I’m tasting cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin pie spice. The mouth is a tad watery and quaffable.

 

On tap. Poured out a clear, golden orange color with a small, off-white head of foam. It smelled of pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice. Sweet pumpkin with a good balance of spices.