Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale

Brewed by Smuttynose Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA

Bottle. Aroma is very spicy and medium sweet, brown sugar and all spice with vegetables, cookie dough, mint, raisin, and strong ginger bread. Orange body with a fluffy beige head. Aroma more spicy than sweet, certainly dries out into a sort of rubbery mess by the end, with the dominant taste component reminiscent of the dentist’s office. Medium body and smoothness mingled with crispness. This is not the best pumpkin beer I’ve had, but there is something unmistakably charming about it - something natural, earthy, and organic. And pumpkiny!

Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale is a cloudy pumpkin-colored ale with an off-white, soft, foamy head that has good retention and lacing. The aroma is bready and strong in nutmeg with perhaps coriander, cinnamon and lemon zest. It smells very fresh and homebrewish. The pumpkin is not apparent in the aroma-- pumpkin bread, maybe. It has a medium light body-- reasonably smooth with a dusty, dry finish. All of the aroma’s spices are confirmed in the flavor. There is a thin woodenness to it, like toasted pumpkin seeds. The bitterness swoops in at the end of the swallow and lingers for a bit. The bitterness seems more from coriander than from hops. It tastes autumny without being abusive with pumpkin. Well-spiced.

Did they change the recipe? I remember last year’s brew being sweeter. Maybe that is because I tried last year’s in October, and this year’s version in August. Either way, this is one of my favorite examples of the pumpkin beer, and I found it a bit spicy, but still good.

12oz. Bottle: Lightly sweet aroma. Smells of pumpkin, spices, ginger, and dish soap. Poured orange in color with a small, off-white head that diminished quickly. No lacing. Hazy. Lightly sparkling. Lots of tiny particles. Flavor is lightly to medium bitter. Tastes of pumpkin, spices, cumin, mint, herbs, and medicine. Light to medium body. Slightly oily texture. Soft to average carbonation. Mediciny, minty, slightly dry finish. Not all that pumpkiny.

This beer pours a clear orange color with a decent head. it has nice smells of clove and pumpkin as well as mild hops. the taste is very smooth with hints of nutmeg and mild cinnamin. there is also a nice bitter after taste on the palate.

Pours deep gold. Notes of nutmeg and pumpkinon the nose. This flavors roll into the deeper nutmeg spice flavor with a muted pumpkin flavor. The finish give a nice hop like finish.

Rated while drinking: Light gold body with a white creamy head. Smells very similar to the Post Road Pumpkin I just had: spices and pumpkins! The aroma smells a bit more pulled together though. It’s like one solidified smell. Flavor is a lot different than Post Road. A lightning bolt of spices at the beginning, rapidly dissolves to pure pumpkin, which leads to the aftertaste of just nutmeg. I’m savoring the pumpkin taste though. Palate is crisp and fresh; slides down the throat with a hint of dryness after the swallow. Well done pumpkin ale by Smuttynose. Definitely makes me want the leaves to change color, the temperature to drop and more seasonal beers to come out.

Not much pumpkin flavor to it. Quite spicy, the cinnamon and nutmeg come through quite clearly and overpower most of what pumpkin flavor there is.