Mashing Pumpkins
Farm by Beer Tree Brew Co.

 

 

The pour is a dark orange color. The taste is mild pumpkin, & mild cinnamon. Cheers! B-

Pours a clear amber. Thin foam. Clean aroma. Sweet brown sugar and spicy cinnamon body. Good balance. A little pumpkin and whipped cream. Everything you want in a pumpkin ale.

 

Mashing Pumpkins - from Beer Tree Brew. 16 fl oz can purchased from Franklin Beer Co, Franklin, PA, 06/05/24, $ 2.00 (Including tax), $ 0.125/fl oz. Reviewed 12/05/24 (Review 3277). Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Bottom lip of can stamped “09/13/23”. Stored on a room temperature shelf at the distributor, 34 degrees at home. Served at 45.1 degrees F in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature was 51.4 degrees F.
Appearance – 3.5.
First pour – Pale Gold (SRM 4), nearly opaque.
Body – Deep Gold (SRM 6, opaque. Under direct light, hazy with a few particles evident. When rear-lite, same.
Head – Average (Maximum two cm, aggressive center pour), bronze, high density, average retention, leaving neither crown nor cap.
Lacing – None.
Aroma – 3.5 – A bit sweet with mild nutmeg and clove. No yeast, no hops, no alcohol (5.6 % ABV as marked on the label). Not noticing any pumpkin either.
Flavor – 3.5 – Begins sweet with nutmeg and clove – there may be a hint of cinnamon as well. No yeast, no malt, no alcohol, no pumpkin. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. Weak gastric warming, probably from the spices.
Palate – 3 – Medium; almost syrupy; soft carbonation.
Final Impression and summation: 3.5 Final pour dumps some snot into my glass, so am I dealing with bacterial glycocalcyx or remnants of the missing pumpkins. Whatever, I’ll allow my home drain to deal with it. Too bad – up to this point it was a passable spiced ale.

 

Canned 9/15/20. Probably should have reviewed the first can , rather than the last, but forgot, & all of them in between have tasted the same, with no noticeable loss or change in flavor, sooooo.....here goes :

Translucent bright burnt orange, with short-lived moderate white head, that leaves a thin ring.

Right away, as I'm pouring, I smell some nutmeg,clove, & vague fruitiness. Closer olfactory inspection also brings some cooked pumpkin, a hint of cinnamon, and some custard-like creaminess. Smells like pumpkin eggnog, +/- . I'd give it a slightly higher(+.25) rating, but has more clove than is appealing to me. (I have a low tolerance for clove, though like it in low dosages.)

Taste is sweetish bready grain, a fruity pumpkin+sweet apple flavor, that creamy basic eggnog flavor, that's in the aroma , plus the light-moderate mix of spices, that is thankfully lacking in a distinct clove flavor. Light drying bitterness, and light fruity tang at finish & beyond. Almost comes across as a pumpkin-flavored cream ale.

Feel is medium, lightly slick , with light, soft, very,very fine carbonation tingle.

Overall, one of the better pumpkin beers that I've had. Doesn't overdo it with the spices. Can actually taste the grain, and pumpkin (grown at the brewery, btw ;) ). If memory serves, the original batch of this, on-draft in Oct '17, was even more to the grain/vegetal/fruity side , & more what I prefer, but this year's (canned) version is still close enough to that, to be enjoyable.

Fyi, if you blend this with a Belgian-style dubbel or similar, it makes a very good winter warmer/Christmas ale. :)

One of the better newer pumpkin beers that I’ve tried. Great smell and fantastic pumpkin taste.