Southern Tier Pumking

Brewed by Southern Tier Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Lakewood, New York USA

650ml bottle poured into an English pint. STP pours orange with a small thin head. The aroma is heavy with cinnamon and brown sugar. The first taste is like a punch on the throat! A huge, over-bearing wallop of cinnamon completely dominates the flavor. The second taste shows no mercy either. I’ll say that this is the most aggressive pumpkin(g) beer I’ve had. The body is medium and the finish is warm and sugary. It’s rare to say it but this would be a better beer if it was more balanced.

Draft @ Sierra. Amazing bright orange color with aromas of rich spice, nutmeg and pumpkin... almost creamy nose. The palate follows perfectly with those notes and is the best pumpkin I’ve had yet.

A standard pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces an almost two-finger thick, frothy, light tan colored head. The beer is a light amber / dark copper color that shows a brilliantly clear, bright copper hue when held up to the light. Lots of clean caramelized, sweet malt notes add an almost butterscotch note. This is nicely lacking in the typically lame over-spiced pumpkin-pie spice blend. Aromas similar to vanilla, toasted cotton candy, . The aroma is incredibly distinct and quite sweet I would not have guessed that pumpkin would add these butterscotch / caramelized notes, but they are quite different from anything I have ever gotten from malt. While this does smell fairly sweet there is a significant, equally competing, toasted malt note that adds a ton of biscuit malt character.

Lightly sweet compared to what the aroma might have suggested, though this still ends up being quite sweet and at times a touch cloying. This does have a medium fullness to it that coats the palate a bit after each sip. The finish has a touch of hot alcohol to it as well as a lingering toasted cotton candy like note that gets more like toasted grain as the finish lingers on in the palate. An interesting, sort of fruity, butterscotch-sort-of flavor plays a significant role here and has a soft vanilla like edge to it. As the beer warms, the significant, toasty grain notes starts to take on a nutty flavor.

This is a very interesting take on the style, I really, really like that the spices seem to have been left out of this beer entirely (or at least used differently than typical); the pumpkin character though is quite a bit different than I was expecting and not in a bad way. This definitely comes off as a bit cloying (which is typical of this brewery), though I now expect to get dessert when I crack one of this breweries beer open.

22 oz bottle poured a copper amber color with a thin off white head that faded quickly. aroma has pumpkin, spices, a certain creamyness, light nutmg bread, sweetness, and vanilla frosty. mouth feel is medium with lighter carbonation. flavor has loads of pumpkin pie, lighter not overdone spices, milkshake lactic like pumpkin icecream, and graham cracker is right on. by far the beat pumpkin i have tried, totally fall time here.

Bomber into a wineglass for lack of a goblet, which they suggest - ever so fittingly - that it be served in. I have been looking forward to this one for a few weeks now. Nice clear amber pour with a great (not overly building) off-white head that holds well and left some nice lace - nice density to it too. Smells great if you like pumpkins and spice - nice mellow but full pumpkin flavor with some great cinnamon and doughy bready notes - smells like fall and thanksgiving. Wow, the taste is just as good, this thing is delicious and exactly what I would want a pumpkin beer to taste like - rich thought not overwhelming or syrupy; not overly sweet but some nice sweetness to compliment the pumpkin and dough characters; no funky bitterness or any flaws on the finish. This thing is smooth on the palate with subtle carbonation and a medium to heavy body. I usually only give 5s on my palate rating to super thick and heavy and coating brews with soft silky carbonation, but this mouth feel is so perfectly suited to the flavor that it is literally perfect. Overall: this thing is unbelievable if the idea of a pumpkin beer appeals to you. It tastes like an amazing dessert. This far surpassed all I was hoping for. My only real discrepancy is that a bomber might be too much, maybe just a 12 ounce or a pint because it is so rich.

22oz bomber served in a chalice. Copper colored pour with a quickly dissipating head. Fantastic aroma of pumpkin pie spices, cinnamon, nutmeg even some bready pie crust. Taste is more spice with fruit. There is a bit of hop bitterness in the middle. The finish of spice lingers long. There is a little bit of alcohol as it warms. One bottle is plenty. Like the Creme Brulee, the aroma alone is worth the price of admission.

22oz bottle. Pours a light amber color with a nice white head that produces a reasonable amount of lacing and decent head retention. The aroma is almost exactly like pumpkin pie filling. There is a hint of graham cracker hidden in there. Lots of cinnamon, all spice, ginger, all the typical seasoning you would think of when thinking of pumpkin pie. Smells wonderful! OH MY GOD! I figured this beer would taste a bit different than the aroma but no! It tastes exactly how it smells. All the typical pumpkin pie flavors you are used to with just a very slight hint of bitterness. This tastes wonderful!!! The palate is a touch too thick for me, but it fits the beer well. This is amazing!! Well done! Tops for fall seasonals!

I promise I’m not trying to be the annoying contrarion, but I wasn’t impressed with this one. After the umpteen different pumpkin ales I’ve tried over the years, this is so far the worst. The pour was fine, though initially I’ll admit, I swigged a few swallows from the bottle. Once I did pour some: lightish amber, dark yellow in color, decent whitish head. Aroma was *mildly* of pumpkin, (pumpkin-esque?) and a lot of some hard to place spice, sort of perfumy. Overall flavor ... ugh, is that cardamom? Hand soap? Tasting revealed such an utter lack of any true pumpkin taste I had to double check the bottle. Zero taste of any cinnamon, allspice or ginger whatsoever. Sweetness was marred by an almost overpowering, perfumed, spiced-but-not-pumpkin-spiced flavor. Double checked the bottle again, yep. Awful.