Rock Art Pumpkin Imperial Spruce Stout

(22oz bottle) Small beige head atop clear black body. Aroma is medium sweet, spruce, some roast, light allspice. Taste is moderately sweet, spruce, some roast, grapefruit, bittersweet chocolate, light pumpkin spice. Medium body.

Not too bad, very little pumpkin, but very hoppy, lots of spruce. Fairly dry. Gentle carbonation.

Pours a nearly opaque dark mahogany with ruby hues and a thin, clingy-lacing off-white head. Aroma of earthy dark chocolate and caramel with a hint of pumpkin flesh and cola. Starts pretty thin and semi-sweet with an earthy bittersweet spruce flavor and a touch of roasty malt and dark chocolate before a thinner, bittersweet finish. A disappointing beer given a unique and enticing name.

Growler (Beverage Warehouse, Winooski, November 2006), sampled from a Chouffe tulip at cellar temperature -- the growlers are just labelled "Pumpkin Stout", bombers will have the longer name. Dark thick tan head forms massive nicely patterned lacing as it subsides above the opaque jet body....nicely balanced aromas of herbal/pumpkin and chocolaty roast/sugars, the cocoa becoming stronger with warmth, though I don’t detect a lot of sprucy/pine notes....body is moderately sweet, a bit vinous/grapy and lightly tart towards the finish, chocolate-espresso dominating with very little in the way of the vegetable named on the label that I could detect, some dry woody qualities towards the finish....mouthfeel unfortunately lets this beer down, it’s way too thin and attenuated, far too dry and even chalky at the finish and the low carbonation makes it rather fatiguing to drink....another mixed sample from this brewery which seems often to have good ideas but poor execution. Will try a bottle when I see it to let the half-dozen people reading this know if it might be worth trading for (ooh, new Imperial stout, must have...).