Happy Jack
Russell Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Russell Brewing 'Happy Jack' Pumpkin Ale @ 5.5% , served from a couple of 650 ml bottles purchased for $5.55
A-pour is a dirty gold from the bottle to a very dark amber in the glass with a small off-white head leaving a spotty lace along the pint
S-oak and fall spices(nutmeg , cinnamon , allspice)
T-nice dark pumpkin ale with a creamy smooth start , don't mind the oakness ,
MF-mild carbonation , medium body , the oakness is certainly noticeable on the swallow
Ov-ok/good beer , worthy pumpkin ale
prost LampertLand

 

 

Pours a nice, slightly hazy chestnut colour, topped by three fingers of loose foam that recedes fairly quickly but leaves a half-finger or so. Decent lacing. Lots of pumpkin spice on the nose (cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, pumpkin), but what I actually like about this brew is that the sharpness of those spices doesn't lead to a sharpness in the flavour or mouthfeel here (which I find is a problem with a lot of pumpkin beers). There's a nice soft texture, a slight vanilla sweetness (thanks oak chips!). It's clearly its own beer, rather than a brown ale with some random spices dumped in.

I'm growing pumpkin beer-weary this late in the season, but this one I really appreciated.

I was expecting something a little more cheerful given the smiley pumpkin on the brightly coloured label; this considerably dark, semi-opaque liquid is practically as brown as it is orange. It goes to show beers are no different from books in that they shouldn't be judged by their covers.

The aroma has a nice perfume - as it should. Let's be honest, people drink pumpkin beers for the same reason they eat pumpkin pie: the spices. Squash isn't on the same level as cinnamon and vanilla, both of which are found in the bouquet. Wisely, the actual pumpkin flavour here smells heavily caramelized.

Disappointingly little of that pie flavour shows on the palate. Happy Jack has a big yet plain maltiness; it drinks more like a lightly mulled amber ale. Only the aftertaste has any distinction and even then it's more reminiscent of cinnamon heart penny candies than grandma's homemade baking.

Also noticeably absent is the oak on which this was aged. Russell neglects to mention how long it's aged but note they say "on" as opposed to "in", implying the use of oak chips in lieu of an actual barrel. One can tell. The watery buttery vanilla quality is far less pronounced than those lent by a wooden cask.

Happy Jack may please the Average Joe, but I found it disappointing. Pumpkin was more noticeable than oak and, aside from a pinch of cinnamon on the nose and a dash of clove on the tongue, there was an inadequate amount of fall-time seasoning. I feel more tricked than treated.

 

A: medium coppery brown and clear
S: wet pumpkin, cinnamon and allspice. While some pumpkin beers are all spice (pumpkin spice beers rather than pumpkin beers?), this one is not, bringing both the spice and the pumpkin.
T: Mildly spiced, some leafy hops.

 

 

650ml bottle - I know very well that I had this in its Manitoba-produced form last year or so, and that this is the same company as Fort Garry, but still.

This beer pours a clear, dark orange-brick amber hue, with a single measly finger of loosely foamy, and mostly bubbly beige head, which leaves some random spectral lace around the glass as it duly recedes.

It smells of sharp cinnamon, more restrained nutmeg and allspice, chummy caramel malt, vanilla-heavy oaken wood notes, staid pumpkin meat, and mild earthy, leafy hops. The taste is more of the same, with the edgy cinnamon, mixed n' matched n' muddled seasonal pie spices, thinned-out barrel staves - no more vanillan than they are woody - subtle pithy drupe fruit, and weak earthy, weedy, and astringently leafy hops.

The carbonation is quite involved in its pervasive frothiness, the body medium-light in weight, and generally clammy in its various attempts at smoothness. It finishes off-dry, barely, as that initial stripped-down cinnamon apparently has some healthy (?) metallic staying power.

Not altogether different than what I recall of the Russell East version, in that the spices overtake, the wood treatment underwhelms, and the whole thing generally seems cracked at the seams. If it's a rounded pumpkin ale experience ye be searchin' for, I'm sorry to say, you might want to keep your search alive.