It's official: we are smack dab in the heart of pumpkin season. Pumpkin everything is upon us, if you happen to be living under a rock. Pumpkin cookies, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin scones, pumpkin spice lattes, and, of course, pumpkin beers. I don't know about where you live, but Ohio released pumpkin beers in early August. August! It reminds me of shops that decorate for Christmas before Halloween. It drives me bonkers.... namely because, by the time I get around to wanting one, as the weather turns to those crisp fall days, pumpkin beers are gone. Never fear, we have been stocking up for the last two months, and have a few to bring you. This one, however, was a nice surprise in a recent trade, as it is not distributed to Ohio, and it is a fantastic pumpkin beer. We enjoyed it when we were in Illinois a couple years ago to move my dad out here.
Pouring a deep amber, almost garnet color, the chill haze has now lifted and a bit of off-white head still remains atop my beer. The aroma is liquid pumpkin pie, with cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, brown sugar, and pumpkin wafting into my nose. Oh, but wait, this is so much better than the aroma! This a beer in which the pumpkin shines. You can tell Schlafly does not skimp on the pumpkin in this, as it hits you first and stands ahead of the spices in the beer. The pumpkin hits you first, then the cinnamon, and the clove and nutmeg wait until the pumpkin is done playing on your tongue before making their appearance. There is a decent bite from the alcohol (8%) at the very end. The aftertaste is almost like one of those cinnamon disk candies. This is fairly well carbonated, and soft enough to make me wonder whether there is some lactose in here, and there is almost a creamy flavor to it.
This is a wonderful example of a pumpkin beer. I tend to enjoy them, but I know several connoisseurs who do not. I would challenge them to try this, widely regarded as one of the better pumpkin beers on the market, to see if this could be a game-changer.
4.6/5 caps
-Jennie
After a rough day at work, my initial game plan was just to get stupid drunk off massive amounts of high ABV, cheap swill (read: FUCK MY LIVER! IT'S FORTIES NIGHT!). I decided against this preliminary thought, as there was the opportunity to enjoy good beer and review. Well, so here we are, after a rough day, opening the Frank Turner cd I ordered off Amazon, plugging it in and listening to it while, once again, staring at a computer screen. As if I didn't get enough of the staring at a screen for 8 gruesome hours today. It's funny to think that the thing that makes you feel shackled can also be a form of release and freedom.
I gave Jennie the opportunity to review this first while still getting my bearings about my day. Since then, this has had time to warm up. This has zero chill haze now, with a rich amber, light garnet color. This has a small amount of the off-white head still lingering around, much like the work day lingers, only the off-white head is welcome in my world. The nose on this at this point is your pumpkin pie spices, but you can actually smell pumpkin in this (unlike most that just seem to be the spices). There's something almost creamy about the aroma, as weird as that may sound. Also, welcome hints of booze. Whoa... The flavor on this... It's like eating a good homemade pumpkin pie. Pumpkin still predominant at this point with a nice blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove; none of which over power the other flavors. Faint hints of brown sugar and cream make themselves known at first, but only for a short amount of time, much like a limited run of your favorite sandwich at a fast-food restaurant, gone too soon. Nice full mouthfeel like you just took a bite of pumpkin pie, to boot. I get where Jennie said the back end is like the cinnamon hard candies. I also see where she said the ABV is noticed. Neither are deterrents from this beer for me despite my 'eh' feeling toward cinnamon flavored things; gum, liquor, graham crackers, candy.
If were were scoring this through a BJCP score sheet, this would have the check mark of "I would pay money for this beer" in the Drinkability section.
4.6/5 caps
-Nathan-
Food Pairing: Pumpkin Ravioli in a sage cream sauce
Cheese Pairing: Butterkasse
Music Pairing: "This is Halloween" (from The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack)
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