Profiled by Ken Carman for professorgoodales.net
This was odd. I presented it at a beer tasting last weekend and it was well loved by all, even me: very pumpkin pie-ish. The color just right: pie in a glass. Had another bottle a few days latter and it was actually a little annoying: All Spice over the top. Clue: second serving was almost warm, first chilled just right. I highly recommend the chilled, unless your fav thing to do is open a can of All Spice and lick it clean. Cinnamon not that present, nutmeg somewhat, Perle hops… why did they bother? Really: in some beers hops seem to be tossed in because some folks think its “not beer without hops,” despite the fact the craft, and the art, of brewing beer is a lot older than the use of hops in beer. Thank the Catholic Church for the weird idea that Jim Koch, I guarantee, knows is false: “Hops are to beer like grapes are to wine.” (Actually, not necessarily always true in wine, though mostly. Mead is really a honey wine, there’s rhubarb wine, dandelion, etc.)
Aroma: All Spice with nice, but somewhat distant, malt background: caramel, Mouthfeel: a little slick, probably due to the actual use of pumpkin. One hopes the mash didn’t turn into goo, since pumpkin is happy to assist with that “joyful” experience. Medium body: very pleasing. Slight chill haze: slightly cloudy. Plenty of head. One thing I can say, both times, is the spicing may be too aggressive. And that’s a hard comment to pull from me: I love aggressive.
I will buy it again because my curiosity is up, but not what I expected. Chill, please.