How Now Brown Cow - Pumpkin Spice
Aslin Beer Company

 

 

 

 

 

Looks knock it out of the park -- dark, dark brown verging on black under a light brown sugar brown. Scent is similarly excellent with a very restrained dose of cinnamon, cardamon, and nutmeg but notes of the milk stout base still peeping through. Taste is much more spice forward with the milk stout receding into the background. Feel is on the lighter side while still being quite smooth. A nice change of pace from the more traditional pumpkin ales of fall.

 

 

Freshly bought, poured hard from a tall can into a snifter glass, forming a few fingers of frothy off-white head that faded to some lacing. Smell is pumpkin pie spice (cardamom, cinnamon, all spice?), Not super strong. Color is dark brown and slightly cloudy. The taste is very heavy spices with a little background of milk stout. Solid taste if you're looking for that heavy pumpkin pie spice flavor. Not sure there's any actual pumpkin though. Not quite medium bodied and still moderate carbonation despite the hard pour. Overall, a decent spice-heavy stout.

 

 

Dark brown body with two fingers of light brown foam. Spices dominate the smell and taste, lightly roasted malts, vanilla, and toasty earth is not enough rein it in. This works better on the nose than the taste, where the palate is simply overwhelmed. Feels thin, with decent spice percolation but malts only provide light smoothness underneath. There are better pumpkin milk stouts out there

5 oz pour on tap at Frisco Taphouse in Crofton. Nice dark roasty/coffee flavors with moderate pumpkin spice. Slightly thin mouthfeel but otherwise it's a solid pumpkin stout.

 

 

 

 

16oz can purchased from the fridge as a single for $4.99. No canned on date.

Look: Pours a medium to dark brown color; does not appear to be so thick. A rocky brown head dissipated to nothing pretty quickly.

Smell: Has those classic autumn pumpin pie spices: ginger, nutmeg, clove, spicy cinnamon. Reminds me a lot of gingerbread. Smells a bit sweet too. The spices are making it hard to pick up much else on the nose - maybe a bit of molasses.

Taste: This is quite good. The spices come through on the nose along with the sweetness from the lactose, and everything is very well balanced. It's not too sweet and not too spicy. The finish has a mildly spicy finish from cinnamon and ginger. The finish also has a touch of roasted malt bitterness, which balances the sweetness nicely. This beer totally reminds me of a gingerbread cookie.

Feel: The mouthfeel is relatively light for a 6% ABV stout, but it still has a silky smoothness to it. Nicely carbonated.

Overall: My second Aslin beer. Even though the rating is the same I do think that I like this one a bit more than the How Now Brown Cow - Maple & Coffee variant. It doesn't taste as sweet as that one was, which was a bit too sweet for me. A really nice sweet seasonal treat!