Arcadia Jaw-Jacker Ale

Brewed by Arcadia Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Battle Creek, Michigan USA

Appearance: Pours a clear, pumpkin husk-hued body with a thin, bubbly, white head. Smell: Autumnal aroma of a homemade pumpkin pie spice mix backed by some toasty malts. Where are the pumpkins? Taste: Simple toasted malts with a modicum of sweetness transitions into the usual suspects found in a pumpkin pie (though, I’m more of a sweet potato pie man, myself) spice blend: nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice. Very, very faint citrus hoppiness with only a meager amount of bitterness. Finishes dry with what you’d call some residual spiceness. Okay, so there are no pumpkins -- joke’s on me! Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Medium-plus carbonation. Drinkability: Fine in the context of a light spiced beer, I guess, but it’s hard to refrain from letting out a discontented sigh for want of pumpkin. But if the pumpkins available to Arcadia are anything like the ones featured on the label, then I can fully understand their absence and omission from the recipe.

orange colored under a small white head. pumpkin, nutmeg, pink bubblegum flavors. not overly sweet or overly pumpkin. decent stuff.

12 oz bottle from a Winter Beer 10 Pack purchased at World Market for me by my wife. C2 notched on label. Pour is hazed cheddar cheese orange with a couple of floaties and a thick 2 inch white head. Head is lasting. Some lacing. Aroma of pumpkin, cooking lettuce and candy sugar sweetness. Taste is cloves, pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg. The nutmeg is pronounced in the longish finish. Palate is on thin side of medium, drinkable with a high level of carbonation. Overall, a somewhat dull pumpkin beer, but clean and drinkable.

Pours a hazy brown-orange with an off-white head. Nose is malt, yeast, spices, and a bit heavy in allspice. A bit heavy on mouthfeel for a pumpkin ale. Flavor starts off with a peppery bite followed by citrus, orange peel, sour, and some barely noticeable pumpkin. Finish lingers with pepper and sour. Interesting, but most noticeable pumpkin flavor is only a memory that reoccurs after the beer is gone.

Bottle at Sunset Grill, Fall 2008. Amber-copper appearance with a strong, light-beige head. Retention withstanding the spicing. Sweet and gooey in the nose, with vanilla, maple and brown sugar all coming on much stronger than the flavor could ever possibly hope to include. And while it dosent have the richness in flavor, the spicing isn’t terribly overdone, leaving some caramel and brown sugar in the background. A little bit of artificial or unfermented sweetness, it seems, with very little actual pumpkin flavor. Fairly substantial mouthfeel, thanks to the chewy malts and probably the wheat addition. Dosent bring anything new to the table as far as spiced autumn seasonals go. Drinkable, though and no major complaints about it.

12oz from Chevy Chase. Looked like another Fall Pumpkin Seasonal.. Pours orange with a 1 thin tan head. Nose is all spice and nutmeg with zero pie for me. Taste has pumpkin in it but overall is on the ehh side for me.

Bottle from State Line. Pour was orangey colored with some faint brown notes. Head as average, as was the head. These pumpkin beers are harder and harder to distinguish from the aroma, they run together: spices and pumpkin. The flavor in this one hits initially as pumpkin and light cinnamon, but finishes with lemony notes and iced tea in the aftertaste. The mouthfeel was moderate/standard, perhaps slightly less spicey zing in the finish than for many a pumpkin ale.

<b>9/27/2007</b>: Allspice and a trace of nutmeg dominate the aroma of . Its appearance is a clear Autumn-like color (amberish) with a thin, off-white crown. A good malty base has a layer of spice that sticks to the roof of the mouth and creates a film there. There is lots of cinnamon and nutmeg in the flavor, but the beer actually smells spicier than it tastes. It also has a medium-body and a powdery texture. This is really a spiced beer as no pumpkin is detectable in either the aroma or flavor. All summed up, it’s okay.

<i>12 fl. oz. bottle shared by Tmoney99. Thanks Tom! Rating #66 for this beer.</i>