Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale

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

Draft at Cock & Bull, Sarasota, FL. Poured hazy copper color with an average frothy white head that was mostly lasting with fair lacing. Moderate pumpkin spicy sweet aroma. Medium body with a sticky texture. Medium sweet spicy flavor with a medium sweet finish of moderate duration.

Very light spice aroma. Light gold color. Decent white head that goes fast. Taste hits with cinnamon and nutmeg, quickly giving a good imitation of pumpkin pie spice. A bit thin. Not much here other than the spice. Worth trying.

"It’s not that bad" is not how I like to start a rating. But it’s not that bad. Most non-Belgian spiced ales are drain-pours for me. This one is a light ale, (kolsh?) matched with light spicing (cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla?) that works in balance. There is a mild pumpkin aftertaste, don’t know if it’s a concentrate or a real squash addition. But it is a very good effort at an odd style. Try it if you are in the mood for something that says "AUTUMN!!"

It must be part of the October spell that any pumpkin beer had in the days immediately following Halloween will taste something like that frumpy, brown gourd that was once you’re proud Jack O’ Lantern. All the qualities that gave it that October splendor leech out of it with every minute that passes between All Hallow’s Eve and Thanksgiving. Even a few days will warp the original flavors and tastes until it’s nothing like its former self. It is, in a sense, a wicked, baleful transformation caused by the dearth of haunting hours – an irony not lost on my taste buds. This worryingly clear and watery looking drink, however, may not have rotted at all. Perhaps it was brewed this way, purposefully made to be a despairingly woeful incarnation of drinkable pumpkin flavor. The smell is bland and banal: malts, maybe some all spice and a general trace of cheap lager form the lackluster aroma. The taste is no improvement, reflecting a similar lack of any flavor. Most noticeably, the main actor of what should be a pumpkin beer is absent, leaving a basic malt flavor to fend for itself against an onslaught of furious criticism and scathing reviews. In other words: where is the pumpkin? At least be forthright about your beer’s character – if there isn’t any pumpkin then spare us the poorly photoshopped picture of a pumpkin cavalryman. One, it’s tacky, and two, it gives me the false hope that purchasing your beer would help satisfy my craving for pumpkin beer. Alas, yours is no such thing, and has left me disappointed. However, rather than blast poor Shipyard with senseless vulgarity I’ll restrain my rage and make this remark, just in case I’m being unfair – this was the worst pumpkin beer I have ever had. That leaves the door open for worse pumpkin beers to come along, but in my limited experience, Shipyard’s attempt at one of my most celebrated kinds of beer was an offense to my senses and sensibilities. It is, I hope, one less rotten pumpkin on balconies I don’t have to see come next October.

Poured very shiny light orange, bubbly and effervescent. Very perfumey aroma. The flavor reminds me of gingersnaps cookies more than pumpking pie, but it’s pretty good.

Light golden color with a diminishing head. Faint pumpkin aroma with some resemblance of spices. Smooth creamy mouthfeel, light pumpkin taste. Some spice notes with a well carbonated aftertaste. Wanted more flavor and body, expectations were a little high.

[Bottle 4.8 % ABV] Golden colour, weak head. Strange toothpaste and ginger bread aroma. Thin and fizzy. Sweet toothpaste and ginger bread flavour.

Pours a clear golden with a dimminishing head. Smells of cinamon or Indian Chai. Very spicy. Light bodied. Mellow carbonation. Light cinamonny finish.