Fallow Harvest
Hermit Thrush Brewery

The appearance was a dark ruddy brown color with a thin layer of white foaminess coating the top. Lacing was barely there. The smell starts off with a fair amount of sweet and tart raspberries. Light cherries blend in. Sour and sweet lemon combine underneath and then the pumpkin, woeee, that took a while. The taste follows the smell pretty much the same way. Aftertaste has basically the same features of the aroma in the same order. There’s no finish. On the palate, this one sat about a medium on the body with a fairly decent sessionability about it. Carbonation comes across fairly tame, allowing pumpkin flavor to run nicely underneath. Overall, nice cross between a pumpkin ale and an American wild ale, I'd have this again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had two cans of this. I first treated it as a pumpkin ale and poured into a pint glass, well that didn't help. I didn't get any "pumpkin" flavors in the aroma or the flavor. There weren't any spices either. With that in mind, I took the second can to a tulip thinking, well, it is Hermit Thrust, let's treat it like a Belgian sour. Once again, that didn't help either. Here's the rest.
The appearance in both glasses, a ruddy burnt orange color with a one finger white foamy head. It quickly dissipates and leaves some sliding lacing.
The smell had a sour apple up front with some tart citrus in and around some woody edges - both glasses I noticed this.
The taste was sour again with the woodiness coming back in a dry fashion.
The mouthfeel was aggressive in a woody dry harshness giving off about a medium body. Carbonation feels fine.
Overall, I don't think this is a pumpkin ale, maybe that's what the brewer intended but I just don't see it.

The brewery describes this as a sour pumpkin beer and an 8% abv. Sour it certainly is but this is not a style I enjoy. No spices or obvious pumpkin flavor. Unusual, creative, well-made.

L-An aggressive pour leads to a deep reddish brown colored beer with a 1 inch creme colored head. This recedes to a thin film after a moderate amount of time.
S- the nose is composed mostly of the lacto common to many sours. I am unable to detect pumpkin, but my nose isn't the most sensitive.
T-Again I get some lacto sour, but no hint that pumpkin is involved. There is a harsh finish to this beer that I'm not very fond of.
F-There is a modest amount of carbonation, and combined with the harsh note in the finish makes the beer feel dry and almost winelike.
O- Not my favorite beer by these brewers. Given the pricepoint, I doubt I'll repurchase.

Marker-adorned 16oz can purchased at the source a little over a month ago. My experience with Hermit Thrush has been a somewhat mixed bag -- some pretty decent ones, some messy butterballs, some interesting ideas, all sours that kinda blur together. Intrigued at the idea of a pumpkin sour though, so decided to give this one a go.

A - A pretty great reddish-orange color, looks very autumn-y indeed. A finger or so of beige head forms, eventually coming to rest as a thick ring with a few bits of lace left behind.

S - Sour apple and lemon, some dirty-earthy-farm tones, some caramel and toastiness, slight pumpkin, sour candies.

T - Pumpkin is still kinda arguable here but the flavor does open up some more. Lots of green+red grape coming through giving it a kind of a wine vibe, a decent plethora of sour fruits and farmy wheat. Kind of big reddish toasty malts back this pretty hard. Bit of lacto in the finish.

M - Feels a bit on the bigger side but still a bit tame-seeming for 8%. A tad too much carbonation, decent amount of tartness, but a pretty easy drinker overall for a highish-ABV sour.

O - A pretty enjoyable and easy-going sour overall, but pumpkin?, hm. I feel like the malts give it the faintest of pumpkin-ish hints, but if I didn't know better would presume this to be a normal ol' not-crazy-deep-kinda-tart-n-farmy beer. And in that it succeeds.

 

 

10-month aged and blended Sour Pumpkin Ale with no spices added using last year's pumpkin harvest.
I honestly cannot detect much pumpkin/gourd aroma in this at all.
Taste is clean with just a tiny hint of pumpkins.
Very good, but lacking in the pumpkin dept.