Grand River Highballer Pumpkin Ale

Brewed by Grand River Brewing
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Cambridge, Canada

Pours a transparent orange with a short lived head. The aroma is cinnamon, nutmeg, and dough. Pretty cool, just like a pumpkin pie. . . .I don’t really like pumpkin pie, but for beer it seems, i’ll make an exception. Flavours are cinnamon, nutmeg, dough, good malty balancing act. Really pretty impressive how much they nailed the pumpkin pie. Well played Grand River Brewery, you are quickly becoming my favorite local brewery.

malty, boozy, pumpkin smell like a dark kind of pumpkin cake, its a strong amber with a tiny head that disappeared. taste is like pastry, spices mostly cinnamon and nutmeg, this one is pretty nice but again i dont get whats so special about this brewery

Bottle, much thanks to Blankboy. Amber body, white head. Nose is some vanilla, pumpkin spices, nutmeg, brown sugar, ginger cookies. Flavor is toasty malt, light spicing and a bit of a twang. Some watery caramel comes out towards the finish along with gingerbread house characters.

On cask at Volo Cask days: Appearance: Golden red, small white head. Aroma: Pumpkins!!! Lovely creamy allspice, vanilla too, superb, possibly one of the best pumpkin ales I’ve ever smelled. Flavour: Delicious creamy pumpkin, spices, cinnamon, very ’pie’ like, long spicy finish. Deeeeeeeelicious.

Bottle from the brewery, bottled November 11th. It’s an orange amber colour with a healthy, thick white head. The aroma is very full with plenty of complexities; there’s pumpkin with roasted pumpkin seeds, pie filling, cinnamon, clove. Mouthfeel is medium in body. It’s really a great pumpkin ale, my new favourite for the style. There’s plenty of malt in the flavour and something like whipping cream with the pumpkin, then holiday spices: nutmeg, clove, cinnamon. The pumpkin flavour is very fresh and creamy like homemade pie.

500 ml bottle from the brewery via my bro, served at cellar temperature in a tulip glass. Bottled on OCT 24 2009.

App.: Clear amber with a fairly generous off-white foam. Aroma: A nice, unified aroma of medium-roasted malts, pie crust, restrained spicing and almost a creaminess; I think this is as close as your gonna get to liquid pumpkin pie. Palate: Medium+ body, fairly full and fairly gentle effervescence. Flav.: More malt presence than the nose, the spices are thankfully restrained and work well with the rest of the brew instead of trying to jump out and stab you in the tongue, very cohesive; dry with only a hint of bitterness (I was kinda hoping for a bitter kick, but oh well) and some nice lightly spiced malts to finish.

While I’m not a fan of this type of brew, I quite enjoyed this particular attempt. Nice work, Rob.

Volo Cask Days 2009. Very spicy pumpkin ale. Lots of cloves, and cinnamon. The finish is sharp, and i would say a little prickly. Some decent hopping that is evident in the finish.