Halloween seems all too perfect a time to have the second to last beer in the Great Pumpkin-Off of 2011. Especially given the label for this beer is a Jack O'Lantern.
Saranac Pumpkin Ale is one of their seasonal brews that's available in their 12 Beers a Falling or in its own 6 or 12 pack. The brewery is located in Utica, NY and as of right now I'm supposed to go visit it very soon.
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| Happy Halloween! |
This particular beer was picked out by a friend for his birthday and the first sampling I did was with him straight from the bottle. I was a little put off by it then so I decided to do a proper sampling of it a few days later, thinking that the bottle somehow changed the way the beer tasted.
The beer poured a deep reddish gold color. There was very little head on the pour and what there was seemed to dissipate very quickly. The nose was very spice heavy with clove being the most notable one of the bunch. The flavor wasn't much different. The clove was downright overpowering. It was difficult to discern a lot of the other spices that were there because of the clove. I also found it difficult to discern the pumpkin at all. The spices lingered on the palate after the beer was finished, tasting almost like burnt spices after awhile.
It depends on personal tastes on this one I suppose and I like cloves as much as the next person, but I strongly feel you should be able to taste the pumpkin in a pumpkin ale. The beer was fairly disappointing but not overall terrible. It certainly left a warmth from all the spices and at $8 a six-pack it is certainly reasonably priced.
Brit,
ReplyDeleteSounds like the cloves were a little overpowering for your taste. Like a lot of our specialty brews, our Pumpkin Ale has a ton of flavor and in this case, spice - so we realize it's not for everyone. It is however, one of our favorites at the Brewery as well as one of the beers we get the most positive feedback from our drinkers about.
Regardless, we wanted to drop you a comment and say thanks for taking the time to write a review, even it wasn't what you were expecting. If you got a chance to try the other beers in our Fall mix pack we'd love to know what you think.
Cheers!
I unfortunately didn't get a chance to try the other beers in the Fall mix pack but I'm going to try track one down this week. I should be visiting the brewery this weekend and am really looking forward to it now.
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time to read my review, I really appreciate it!