McAuslan Spiced Pumpkin/ St-Ambroise Citrouille

Brewed by McAuslan Brewing
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Montreal, Canada

Bouteille brune de 341 ml. Arômes puissants d’épices (cannelle, muscade, girofle et gingembre). Elle sent vraiment la tarte à la citrouille. Robe rousse, peu d’effervescence. Épicée en bouche, la base maltée est cependant relativement faible. Très peu d’arrière-goût. De mémoire, cette bière était meilleure lorsque très récemment brassée.

Bottle. Clear reddish amber pour with a huge beige head. Spicy aroma of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and clove. Caramel flavor up front with cinnamon, ginger and clove. My only problem with this beer is that the spice leaves your tongue too quickly and your left with a somewhat watery finish.

The look: Clear amber body with a little beige ring of foam
The style: Spicy Pumpkin beer
The stuff: Lots of pumpkin flavour in there and quite a bit of spices too with the expected assortment of nutmeg, cinnamon and friends. Body is as full as can be expected from the genre and the carbonation is appropriately soft-medium. Doesn’t bring anything new to a generally boring style however it does it more intensely than most of the competition. Funny that I have never eaten a pumpkin or a pumpkin pie but I can now identify pumpkin flavours after drinking so many beers. So that’s at least one thing that beer has taught me, unfortunately is doesn’t quite make-up for all it has made me forget.
The how: Bottle, fresh.
The conclusion: Flavourful and slightly above average for the style.

341 ml bottle courtesy of a trtade with Boutip. Pours a mostly clear coppery orange with a large linen white head that lingered until mid-glass and left a few large patches of foam. Pleasant aroma of pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg. The flavor is pumpkin, wax beans, cinnamon and nutmeg and tastes a bit watered down. Light bodied. An ok pumpkin beer.

Bottled. Pour is super fizzy with a cola like head. Dark orange. Aroma has a good bit of pumpkin and pie crust, though not too spicy. Mellow flavor, a bit spritzy but thin bodied, light pumpkin sweetness in the finish. Has a bit of slate flavor to it, but overall not too bad. Messy, vegetal finish. Bearable.

33 cl bottle, Mulmur, ON, Canada. Deep orange amber colour, thin tight head. Pronounced caramel and nutmeg aroma, sweet and medium bodied. No overarching sickly sweetness, with a relatively normal spiced finish.

355 ml from a 4-pack bought at Marche Jovi, served cool in a tulip glass.

App.: Clear, medium copper, small light tan head. Aroma: As expected, a big noseful of ginger, cloves and allspice, some cinnamon, I guess too; definite bubblegum esters, fruitiness, some medium-roasted malts; more of a spice cake than a pumpkin pie. Palate: Medium body, slightly oily, medium yet sharp effervescence. Flav.: Tons of all the spices come through, as does the caramel/toffee cakey malts; really tastes like a spice cookie or spice cake; the flavour follows the aroma, which is often not the case with these beers; a bit sweet with almost no bitterness ; light acid brightness and only light spice residuals.

Normally not a fan of these beers, but I didn’t mind this one. Would have liked to get one of the gift packs shown in the pic!

Bottle. St-Ambroise Citrouille. In person trade with Glougoburp, drank at tasting because I didn’t have room in my bag for it. Pours amber red with an off white ring head. Very nice sweet and spicy nose. Very spiced pumpking taste. A little too much.