Do It Again

More pumpkin flavored beer? What the hell? I thought true beer fans don’t like fruit or veggie flavored beers? Yeah, well, this is a special occasion. I ordered this online, specifically after last week’s Beer Friday. So not only was it a special order, it was highly anticipated, which always makes everything better.

If you don’t like it, I don’t care. And besides, you know that in back of my fridge, behind the pitcher of OJ and the Country Crock, there are always bottles of Bud Light or Miller Lite. For when you need to drink for the alcoholic content, and not so much for the taste. Although when it gets to that point, I usually will point you in the direction of the 1.75 liter bottles of vodka or rum to do that job.

Back to the beer. I got it. My big FedEx’d box of Punkin’ Ale from the Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware. I proudly carried it home, and lovingly put each of the 6 bottles in the fridge. After a couple of hours, The Husband & I decided to start our punkin adventure. We opened the bottles and poured them into cold pint glasses. This is the first time we realized there might be a slight problem with consistency. My glass filled up with a gorgeous, reddish amber beer and formed a creamy, foamy head more than an inch thick. The Husband’s glass filled up with the same color liquid, but totally missed any head on his beer. Mine smelled a bit more like nutmeg and cinnamon than his did, and as far as taste, his glass definitely fell flat. We shared the 2 glasses, and went for a 2^nd go round, with new glasses, just in case. Same thing happened, one was great, one fell flat.

The great glass of beer looked beautiful, smelled delicious, and while it is definitely a clear beer, without any cloudiness, it feels substantial and almost creamy when you drink it. Almost like you are drinking the essence of pumpkin pie. It’s not cloying, or sweet, but it feels like fall, with a little snap and bite while making you feel all cozy inside. There is a malt base which comes out along with brown sugar, and a little pumpkin. I enjoyed it very much. If they can work on their consistency, in either the brewing process between batches, or maybe just while bottling, this would be a great beer, all of the time.