Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale

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

12oz brown bottle served in a shaker pint. Poured a brilliant clear gold with a thin head that quickly dissipated. Aroma of pumpkin pie spices heavy on the cinnamon. Flavor is more of the same, way over the top with the cinnamon. It took me a minute, but it tastes like red hots. Light to medium body with some malt sweetness. It seems like spices and extracts were added rather than actually brewing with pumpkin.

Bottle: Pours a straw-like orange colour, not much head to find. Tons of pumpkin in the aroma, hits you immediately, and digging a bit deeper I pulled lemon and black pepper. Flavour keeps the pumpkin coming, bready and lemony with a light dose of hops. Not bad at all.

12oz bottle. Really light colored, pilsner-esque, no head. Aroma is only pie spice, no malt or hops. Taste is immediately pie, followed for a brief time by a faint hop bitterness and finished with sweet dough. Ginger sticks out near the end. Body is thin. This really doesn’t taste like beer, it’s more of an alcoholic pumpkin flavored soda. It tastes flavored too, like they added a concentrate at the end rather then the spices during the fermentation or at the end of the boil and the pumpkin in the primary. Don’t drink it expecting beer.

Bottle. Pours clear golden color with little head. Aromas of pumpkin, sweet maltiness, and hay. Flavors of pumpkin (barely), hay and lemon zest. Thin body. Metallic and watery. If I bought a sixer of this because I like pumpkin beers (and I do), I would have been upset.

My rating is a bit higher than most. Pours a clear amber with a nice head. Aroma is mostly pumpkin pie spices and malt. Flavor has the pumpkin along with the spices you would expect. Very nice finish. A good pumpkin beer.

I honestly think that it’s one of the best pumpkin/october beers there is. It has a great aroma of pumpkin and spice. It’s not super filling like most heavier pumpkin beers and it’s very enjoyable.

FCBF 09. This was the longest line of the night for us, friends wanted to bail, but pumpkin sounded like something a bit different, and I am a fan of this style of veggie beer. It was the bland version of pumpkin pie though. Nice, but not particularly spicy. Same on nose and palate.