Pumpkin Ale
Steamworks Brewing Company

This must be among the best pumpkin beers I've ever had. I'm not usually a fan, but this has such a mellow malty taste with a nice squash flavor. The spice is evident but actually adds to the pleasure instead of overwhelming everything. The higher alcohol is just right with all the flavor as well.

Clear russet orange-brown color, and long-lasting foam in the Hopleaf goblet. Lightly aromatic, mostly the spice, with some straw. Tastes of malt and pie spice. From the 473 ml can purchased at the BC Liquor store. Dated J0724, whatever that means, but it taste plenty fresh.

A little bit aged on my part.... Pours a slightly hazy dark amber orange colour with one finger off white head. Aroma is spice forward - nutmeg, cinnamon, bit of pumpkin pie essence. Taste is sweet smooth caramel malt, nutmeg, clove, and some character of pumpkin pie. No hop bitterness but as noted above this beer is not fresh - that said not bad for a style I would not have often. Finish is sweet with medium mouthfeel leaning to thin side. Good - not great.

Pours a dark, brown'ish amber coloration with a medium, creamy head. Smells of caramel malt, brown sugar, ginger, nutmeg with a hint of pumpkin, maybe? Taste follows the nose, being more dominated by malt and spice than pumpkin. Seriously, I'm getting very little pumpkin from this. Instead there is a bready, caramel malt flavor with lots of brown sugar and spice: nutmeg, ginger and a little cinnamon. Very light bitterness in the aftertaste. This is such a typical Steamworks beer. They take a really interesting, exotic flavor and then subdue it in a very light, easily drinkable format. I still like this one because there's a really nice balance of sugar and spice going on there, but as a Pumpkin Ale, I wish it had a little more pumpkin bite. Then again, this is my first Pumpkin Ale, so what do I know.

 

 

 

 

 

Steamworks Brewpub 'Pumpkin Ale' @ 6.5% , served from a 650 ml bottle purchased for $6
A-pours a dark burnt orange with a nice size off white head that leaves some small lace along the pint
S-good combination of pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon , ginger , nutmeg , cloves)
T-it's got that sweet twang , but the bottle is lacking something from the *cask* version
MF-good carbonation , medium body , pleasant enough
Ov-still a good Pumpkin Ale in a bottle ,
prost LampertLand

 

650ml bottle - more steampunk imagery from this Van City brewery, this time involving, of course, pumpkins.

This beer pours a clear, bright medium copper amber colour, with one skinny-ass finger of mildly foamy, bubbly, and sort of fizzy dirty white head, which leaves some drowning paramecia lace around the glass as things lazily proceed.

It smells of musky pumpkin pie - the eponymous gourd (lightly roasted), nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and a dark bready and doughy caramel malt sweetness. The taste is sharp cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger spice right off the top, with a near equally strong toasted pumpkin guts vegetal thing, some further grainy caramel malt, baked brown sugar, and an indistinct earthy dryness - maybe some pepper dust, maybe some alcohol.

The bubbles are generally quite competent in their demanding supportive duties here, rendering a solid frothiness that engenders a more or less smooth mouthfeel, to go along with a solid middleweight body. It finishes off-dry, the pumpkin and its attending spices keeping the party going well past dessert.

A very well-rounded and impressively structured pumpkin ale, as the fleshiness of the pumpkin barely wavers, and the spices stay on for the whole ride. What of the base beer? Oh, it's there, unloved, sure, but doing a bang-up job of maintaining the backbone of it all.

 

 

 

 

 

The pumpkin aroma is substantial and very pleasing, one of the best pumpkin ales I have tried this far!

One of the things that surprised me was it's deep red hue. It poured a nice tan head. As expected it has a nice toasted pumpkin nose with all the spices you'd expect of a pumpkin beer, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove etc. Actually think I was drinking it a little cold as the flavours really came out as it warmed up. Another thing that surprised me was it's relative light bodied mouthfeel. And many of you know my love for Steamworks bottle designs and this takes it an extra step by making the bottle Glow-In-The-Dark. Great beer all around