Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale

Brewed by Shipyard Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Portland, Maine USA

12 oz. bottle pours an apple-juice yellow with sparse poufy head that immediately fades, leaving no lacing. Aroma is of something that might be an herb, vegetable, or maybe band-aids. Hard to tell. Flavor is not much of anything. Wheat, maybe, if you really strain to identify something. Thin bodied, with a pleasant aftertaste of creamy cinnamon. In fact, the aftertaste is the most pleasant thing about this beer. It’s almost like they didn’t even try.

Completely clear, amber color with an immediately fading head. Pumpkin and a little bit of cinnamon with a lager-ish aroma. Flavor was a little better than I was expecting, actually. Not overly pumpkiny but it’s definitely there. Palate was weak. Way too thin.

Presentation: It was poured from a brown 12oz bottle into a big dimpled mug. The bottle date reads "Best Enjoyed Before Feb. 2010" and it was sampled on 9-12-2009. Appearance: Its body has a clear, golden amber color with a thin off white head. The body is full of visible carbonation and still the head quickly fizzles down to just a very thin wispy layer. Lacing is minimal and very slick. Smell: The aroma is very pleasing but light. There are notes of cinnamon toast, light grain and apple cinnamon cereal. Taste/Palate: Like the aroma the flavor is light bodied and a little thin. Also there is no real pumpkin flavor. It does have a nice apple cinnamon crumb cake/carrot cake like taste. The finish is quick and fairly clean with maybe just a little bit of sweet spice hanging on. It has lots of active carbonation and with its thin texture it makes for a fizzy feel on the tongue. Notes: If this was just a spiced ale with a little more body I would love it. However as a Pumpkin Ale it is rather boring.

12oz bottle. Clear yellow/gold color with a thin white head. Bottle doesn’t say whether it’s a lager or ale, I would assume ale, but it smells like a pale lager with a bit of spice and a hair of creaminess. Sweet gingery flavor with a mix of other spices thrown in and a dank finish.

BOTTLE: light orange clear pour, fizzy appearance. Pumpkin aroma, taste is fizzy, candy, mild pumpkin, just okay.

Pours a clear orangy copper with almost no head or lacing The aroma is pumplin pie and a slight malt aroma The taste is pumpkin pie and candy sugar alittle thin and watery just ok for me dude

bottle: its a pretty and sweet smelling brew. I think this would have been better but it was perhaps too sweet. Good points where that the pumpkin really came through. As the fall rolls on though, I’ve decided that I’m not really a fan of pumpkin ales in general.

12oz bottle. Pours a crystal clear, golden-bronze colored body with a thin, fizzy, white head that dissipates quickly into a thin lacing. Aroma is pumpkin pie and cinnamon. Not very malty, more spiced, candy based. Flavor is thin and watery pumpkin pie spices with some sweeter caramel and strong cinnamon. Finishes with no real character after a thin body and fizzy carbonation. Overall, a distinct pumpkin flavored beer, but not very rounded or balanced. Watery with a little too much spice and not enough malts.