I’m Gonna Pump(kin) You Up!

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Beer, Beer Review, Cambridge Brewing Company, Cisco Brewers Incorporated, Massachusetts, Pumpkin Beer, Pumpkins

With Halloween rapidly approaching it’s time to make a final push through my fridge and clear out the remaining pumpkin beers.  I am going to have one last blind tasting coming up, but for now we’re looking at another couple of beers I picked out to just enjoy on their own.

Up first was The Great Pumpkin by Cambridge Brewing Company.  It poured an orangish/dark amber body with a thin off white head.  The smell was a mix of sweet malts and pumpkin.  Pretty much par for the course so far.  The taste was a bit more intriguing.  It started out with smooth vegetal pumpkin followed by a bit of fall spices.  These spices then faded away as the beer transitioned to a rather complex finish that combined sweet malts, hints of vanilla, and an ever so slightly boozy ending despite being only 5.4%.  Mouthfeel was medium plus with not much carbonation and complimented the rest of the beer quite well.  Although the spices and vanilla finish can build up a bit at warmer temperatures, they never get to the point of dominating the beer or risked throwing it off-balance.  I enjoyed this one and will continue to make it part of my yearly must haves.

Beer number two was Pumple Drumkin by Cisco Brewers Incorporated.  This was the other co-favorite from last year and I had been eagerly anticipating its appearance in this year’s tasting.  Checking in at 6.0%, it poured a darker amber/brown body with only a thin, fizzy quick to dissipate head.  The smell was all sweet malts and didn’t really give away any hints about this being a pumpkin brew.  As for the taste, it was by far the hoppiest of the pumpkin beers I have had to date.  Upfront there was a mild earthy hop bitterness followed up by sweet malts and subtle pumpkin tastes in the middle.  It finished with a very light cinnamon/nutmeg/all spice combo that blended into the pumpkin flavors and was offset by just a bit more hops.  The beer was medium bodied and moderately carbonated, more in line with a typical IPA than a lot of the other pumpkin beers I’ve sampled.  I really liked this beer as sort of Pumpkin Ale/IPA hybrid.  It was a bit spicier on the finish than I remember it being, but this is still a beer I will continue to make a part of my fall season.

So that rounds out this latest round of pumpkin tastings.  Again, there will be one more set of reviews before I reveal my final rankings and provide some final thoughts on the pumpkin experiment.

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2015 Night Shift Barrel Society Release #5: Sargent, plus an Idle Hands 4th Anniversary Brew

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Baseball, Beer, Beer Review, Brewery Visit, Idle Hands Craft Ales, Massachusetts, MLB, Night Shift Barrel Society, Night Shift Brewing

When I received notice that the latest Barrel Society beer had been released, I knew I had to get into the brewery and try it out since these haven’t been lasting too long on tap this year.  Turns out I was in for a treat that day because not only did I catch this beer, but I was also able to check out a special anniversary brew being offered by their house guest, Idle Hands.  Lucky me!

Before we get into the beer, there is something that needs to be commented upon that happened in the taproom.  If you don’t care about arcade games or baseball go on ahead and skip this part, I forgive you.  For the rest of you read on.  The arcade games that you’ve read about on here before are still there, but they’ve now been relocated to the Barrel Room next to the bar area.  I did not notice this at first and thought they had been done away with until something hanging over the door to the Barrel Room caught my attention.  Yes, that’s a Mets flag.  As a Yankees fan, I am no stranger to having occasionally unpopular views regarding my team of choice.  But a Mets flag at a Boston area brewery just confused me.  Is there no where I can be welcomed in this state?  No unbiased observer could really pick the Mets over the Cubs, right?  Well, it turns some of the bartenders and brewing crew are in fact Mets fans, so that explains that I guess.  They are otherwise seemingly friendly people so I’ll let this pass.  People can cheer for whoever they want as long as they’re not jerks about it.  As for myself, I’ve adopted the Cubs until the Yankees off-season picks up.  It’s just the right thing to do in my situation.

Tangent over, time beer.  The latest Barrel Society entry is named Sargent and is described as a Golden Sour Ale, barrel aged with tangerine and clementine zest.  It checked in at 6.6% and said “drink me” from the moment I saw it.  It poured a dark golden yellow body with just a bit of a foamy white head to top things off.  The smell was an inviting mix of mild fruity citrus juice combined with a light funk.  The taste followed the smell.  The tangerine and clementine zest really came through in this one giving the beer a sweet, fruity taste.  There was also a bit of more subdued and subtle bitterness that finished in a smooth Brett and barrel influenced finish.  Mouthfeel was on the thicker side of medium, with a fizzy and slightly syrupy finish that I usually find in these fruity sour ales.  They recommend this beer as a good one to age and I can certainly see the potential in doing so.  It’s a pretty good beer to drink now as well and is a solid entry in the Barrel Society lineup.

Pouring next was Silk, released by Idle Hands to celebrate their 4th anniversary.  It’s always exciting to try an anniversary brew and this one just so happened to be a Red IPA, one of my favorite styles.  It poured a dark amber, almost brown body with an off-white head that left some lacing along the edges of the glass.  The smell was lightly citrusy and sweet.  The taste was where this beer got intense, offering up a whole lot of aggressive piney bitterness.  I did get some citrus fruits and sweet malts in there at the end, but this beer was really all about piney hops.  Mouthfeel and carbonation were both moderate and typical of most IPAs.  Being my favorite style, there are some pretty specific things I look for in a Red IPA.  The piney hop profile is something I really go for, and this beer certainly delivered on that front.  The citrus fruit and slightly sweet malt profile were also generally in line with my tastes, but I prefer them to be just a bit more balanced with the bitterness.  I’m really curious to find out if the hops will mellow out slightly and the other tastes stand out a bit more if the beer lasts that long, but I’m largely nitpicking on this point.  This beer was a hit with me and I am sad to say that it seemed to be available on tap only.  A growler of this would be absolutely fantastic.

I topped off these two great beers with an old favorite, Bean Porter.  I’ve written about this one on here before so I won’t go back into the details, but take notice that it’s back and as tasty as ever.  And I’ll leave you with that happy thought.  Cheers and go Cubs!

A Few More Pumpkins

Tags

Assembly Row, Beer, Beer Review, Cape Ann Brewing Company, Massachusetts, Pumpkin Beer, Pumpkins, Slumbrew, Somerville Brewing Company

Hard to believe it is already mid-October!  Pumpkin beer season is probably now at its height, so it seem to be an appropriate time to report in on two more.  Unlike the other reviews so far, these beers were not tasted blindly.  One was ordered while out running some errands and the other was a long-standing favorite that I just couldn’t pulling out of the fridge.  So, without further ado, here are the latest two entries into my pumpkin patch.

The first beer to report on this time around is Slumkin Pumpkin, by Slumbrew Brewing Company.  We happened to be in Assembly Row running an errand the other and my wife suggested we stop by the American Fresh Taproom to grab a beverage before heading home.  I hadn’t been there in a while so I wasn’t about to pass this up.  They seemed to have a good number of beers pouring that particular night, but sitting prominently among the beers I hadn’t tried before was a pumpkin beer.  I felt committed at this point, so the pumpkin beer it was.  Happily, it was pretty good.  Checking in at 6.5%, it poured with a typical orangish copper body and a foamy white head.  The smell hinted at a promising vegetal sweet taste profile, something that has done well for me so far.  The taste did follow-up on this and was overall pretty smooth with vegetal pumpkin tastes upfront, a transition to sweet malts and finally a vanilla/pumpkin spice finish.  What made this beer so good for me was that the spice finish wasn’t overdone, though it did build up a bit as the beer went on.  The mouthfeel was pleasingly thick and creamy and brought to mind thoughts of pumpkin pie.  One of the better pumpkin beers I’ve had this season.

The second beer I have to report on was last year’s co-favorite, Cape Ann Brewing Company’s big 11.0% Imperial Pumpkin Stout.  This one is completely different from any of the others I’ve listed on here so far.  It poured dark and black, though I couldn’t coax any more than a thin fizzy head out of it.  The smell is vegetal and sweet, mixed with just a bit of alcohol as the beer warms.  The taste, though, is where the beer really starts to impress.  Upfront is strongly vegetal pumpkin.  The pumpkin remains throughout the beer, though it transitions to a more of sweet pumpkin syrup-like taste by the end.  The pumpkin combines with both sweet and lightly roasted malts and comes to a somewhat boozy finish.  There was not much in the way of spice in this beer and that suited me just fine.  Mouthfeel was thick and creamy and rather low carbed, excellent for the big tastes and style.  Once again, I found this to be a fantastic beer it remains at the top of my list.  It is a good beer period, not just for a pumpkin offering.  It is also now sold in 4 packs of 16 ounce cans which makes it an even nicer pick up for when a bomber is just a bit more than you are looking for.  Highest recommendations for this one.

2014 Night Shift Barrel Society: Orion

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Massachusetts, Night Shift Barrel Society, Night Shift Brewing

It has been a little while since I did my last solo beer review, but I recently took something special out of my beer closet that it deserved a post of its own.  The beer was Orion, the fifth beer from Night Shift Brewing Company’s 2014 Barrel Society lineup.  This was one of my favorites last year and I was curious to see how it had developed over time.

Beer Name: Orion

Brewery: Night Shift Brewing Company

Style: Dark Sour Ale

ABV: 8.4%

Description: As I mentioned above, this was the 5th installment in the 2014 Barrel Society series.  It was described as a dark sour ale aged in oak barrels.

Pour Info: The bottle had sat in my beer closet pretty much since its bottling date on 10/15/2014 until I put it in my refrigerator a few days prior to consuming.  I appropriately drank it out my 2014 Barrel Society teku glass.

Price: The going rate for these was calculated at $15 per 750 ml. for membership purposes.

Appearance: Poured a dark yet slightly shiny brown body with a foamy off-white head.

Smell: The beer smelled rather funky with an assertive tart, fruity sweetness.

Taste: A heavily funky, almost hay-like (in a good way!) taste presided over this beer.  It was accompanied by an equally distinct mildly sweet and decidedly tart fruity taste.  There was also an oak barrel presence that builds a bit on the finish as the beer warms that ties everything together quite nicely.

Mouth Feel: Medium bodied and a touchy syrupy with some fizzy carbonation.

Hype Factor: I’d say I was looking forward to this.  It was my first time this year taking out one of these 2014 beers and I mentioned earlier, this was one of my favorites.

Overall: An excellent beer.  I can definitely tell that it matured a lot in the year since I last drank it.  Whereas before it was predominantly fruity and tart, it had developed a more pronounced Brettanomyces funk and a nice oak barrel-influenced finish.  Very complex and delicious.

Pumpkins, Round 4

Tags

Beer, Beer Review, Blue Point Brewing Company, Fall, Harpoon Brewery, Pumpkin Beer, Pumpkins, Smuttynose Brewery

After being sidetracked by a particularly busy week at work, it was time again to unwind with a new wave of pumpkin beers.  The last batch ending on a somewhat promising note, so let’s see if that momentum called over into this set.

The first beer of the night was Pumpkin UFO by Harpoon Brewery and I am happy to say it started things off on a high note.  It poured a nice cloudy orange-copper body that right off the bat had me thinking about pumpkins.  The smell was sweet and slightly vegetal with a very slight hint of spice.  The taste, however, is where this beer really took off for me.  It had a sweet, at times caramelly, malt backbone accompanied by vegetal pumpkin and light cinnamon/nutmeg spices.  It had a smooth medium body with a slightly more than moderate amount of carbonation that suited the beer perfectly.  Any more carb and it would have been too much, but for me they got it just right.  No doubt my favorite pumpkin beer of the year so far.

The next beer was unfortunately a letdown.  It turned out to be Pumpkin Ale by Smuttynose Brewing Company and it lost me almost from the start.  The amber/deep copper body wasn’t a problem, but the soapy smell backed up by strong hints of spice was a warning of things to come.  The soapiness carried over into the taste and was followed up by sweet and toasty malts with an astringent allspice finish.  I later drank some from the bottle to make sure it wasn’t my glass throwing off the taste, but alas, it was not.  The soap did taste eventually mellow out a bit and give way to more sweetness if the beer was left to sit for a little while, but that was too little too late.  This one was definitely a miss for me.  Moving on.

Closing out this round was another Pumpkin Ale, this one by Blue Point Brewing Company.  While it was a step up from the previous offering, it was overall pretty uninspiring.  It poured a dark amber/copper body and had a foamy head that stuck around for most of the drinking experience.  This beer did not have much of a smell and only a very mild taste.  Sweet malts and a hint of vegetal pumpkin upfront with a nutmeg and allspice finish that was thankfully also rather muted.  Mouthfeel was kind of thick with a moderate amount of carbonation that suited the beer well.  I don’t know that this would have been better with proportionally bolder tastes, but as offered I found the beer somewhat lacking.  Non-offensive was the word that kept coming to mind when thinking about it, which while not bad, isn’t great either.  It was a non-offensive pumpkin spice beer.  Meh.

With four rounds in the books let’s take a look at the updated standings:

Upper Tier Beers

1. Harpoon Brewery – Pumpkin UFO: First beer to break into the upper echelon, this had a great taste profile without the mouthfeel issues that the Magic Hat brew had last time.

Second Tier

1. Dogfish Head Brewing – Punkin Head
2. Brooklyn Brewery – Post Road Pumpkin Ale
3. Magic Hat Brewing Company – Wilhelm Scream Pumpkin Ale
4. New Holland Brewery – Icabod Pumpkin Ale

Third Tier

1. Captain Lawrence Brewing Company – Pumpkin Ale
2. Blue Point Brewing Company – Pumpkin Ale: This was no doubt thoroughly average.
3. Two Roads Brewing Company – Roadsmary’s Baby
4. Smuttynose Brewing Company – Pumpkin Ale: Drinking it after leaving it to sit just barely redeemed it from banishment to the lowest tier.  I’d give it another try at some point, but won’t go out of my way to do so.  Ranks above Pumpkin Batch because it at least did its job as a pumpkin beer.
5. Samuel Adams – Pumpkin Batch

Bottom Tier (Never Again)

1. Southern Tier Brewing Company – Pumking: Still shuddering when I see it on shelves or Untappd.
2. Steadfast Brewing Company – Pumpkin Spiced Ale