Wachusett Imperial Pumpkin

Another post! Within 7 days of the first! Does my productiveness know no bounds?!

Well apparently it does, because I believe I'm getting sick, I'm tired, and I'm still going to make myself go for a run today. Why? I dont know why. But I'm going to be productive and post this damn it.

However, I am going to the BBC (British Beer Company) later on tonight after a little visit to Witch's Woods. So after getting shared shitless (possibly) I will be indulging in some delicious beers (extremely likely). Before that happy moment, I want to share another beer with you.

I’ve decided to continue this tradition of reviewing pumpkin beers, if you can call reviewing one pumpkin beer a tradition. If you can’t call it that, well then I’m going to make it a tradition. So, we’ll continue onward to the Wachusett Imperial Pumpkin Ale.

This rather subtle beer is brewed with two row barley, caramel malt, and pureed pumpkin. There’s also vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and Belgian candied sugar & spices. Overall, sounds like a great combination of flavors—everything that one would want in an autumn brew.

Color: A dark, almost reddish orange with a thin white head. It’s clear and very bubbly. It’s a bit darker than the pumking, with more reddish hues. A nice lookin’ beer. Say, do you come here often?

Aroma: Pumpkin! However, it is subtler than the pumking was. You can still tell that it’s a pumpkin ale, but the smell is a little more complex. There’s also a hint of cinnamon, and the other flavors (nutmeg, ginger) slowly rise out of the pumpkin aroma.


First Sip: Pumpkin, ginger, and cinnamon. In that order. There’s a little bit of bitterness and sharpness, most likely from the ginger. The taste is waaay (with three A’s) more sublte than the pumking, but the flavors are still there. They’re not hiding, but teasing, slowly leading the drinker on to all the delightful flavors that this brew has to offer.

Mouthfeel: Not so smooth, more sharp. The cinnamon and ginger are prevalent, with the spices playing out over the tongue. The pumpkin is still there—in fact it’s behind the other flavors, enhancing and balancing them. Also a bit more caramel coming through now, but I mostly taste the spices.

Aftertaste: The spices are left on the tongue, but they slowly fade away, leaving little to no taste.

If I had to choose one word to describe this beer, it would be subtle. The second would be intricate. A third would be yum. So if you’re a fan of subtle, complex beers where the flavors come to light gradually instead of announcing their presence loudly, then you will probably like this beer.

This beer is so good, it smiles at you, saying "I know how tasty I am. Drink me!"

Birthday Beers! A great way to kick off autumn.

Well my friends, it’s that time of year. October. Autumn. Fall. Leaves are changing color, there’s that hint of lovely crispness in the air, and brewers are putting really yummy things into their beer. Also, it was my birthday yesterday, and so I had birthday beers.

I also got this lovely book called “Tasting Beer.” Perhaps from now on I shall have a…more sophisticated way of describing the taste of beer.

Alternatively, I will continue to make lame jokes and extol the virtues of nearly every beer I come across. We’ll see.

Let’s start things off with a fall seasonal beer, which means one thing: pumpkins. And cinnamon. And caramel and malts and OMG HOPS. And beers that taste like pumpkin pies. Of course, I’m talking about one beer in particular here: Southern Tier Pumpking.

“Pumking is an ode to Púca, a creature of Celtic folklore, who is both feared and respected by those who believe in it. Púca is said to waylay travelers throughout the night, tossing them on its back, and providing them the ride of their lives, from which they return forever changed!”
--From Southern Tier Brewing Company website

This beer is brewed with 2 row pale malt, caramel, and pureed pumpkin. I even know that the kettle hops are magnum and the aroma hops are sterling. (Magnum hops are a bittering hop, used in pale ales and IPAs; sterling hops are used for aromas primarily, giving off an earthy or spicy smell.) How do I know, you ask? Are you taste buds that sensitive? Well, I wish I could say yes and have you all in awe, but I only know the ingredients because they were on the bottle.

And now, onto the tasting:

Color: A light orange, pumpkin color, that is very appropriate for the season. Would be great if had outside, set against the backdrop of the changing leaves. Has a thin white head that disappears quickly.

Mmmmm.

Aroma: Holy cinnamon! Smells very autumn-y. There’s cinnamon, cloves, spices—the sterling hops smell absolutely delicious. It’s as if you’re smelling a fresh baked apple pie, but liquid, in a glass, and alcoholic. I could just keep smelling it, it’s that good.

First Sip: Like fresh pie—pumpkin, cinnamon, spices—everything that the aroma promise. It tastes smooth and rich to me, but that’s no bad thing. It’s not too spicy or too bitter, but it certainly has those elements to it.

Mouthfeel: Nice and smooth and rich, and full of flavor. The cinnamon taste is quite strong, as is the pumpkin taste, but the hops are there as well, lending a slight bitterness to this beer that balances out the spices you get from the cinnamon and the aroma. The flavor is quite strong, and may be too strong for some who prefer a more subtle taste.

Aftertaste: A clean finish that leaves a hint of bitterness behind. It’s 8.6 % ABV, but it doesn’t taste that strong.



And now, on to one of the Top Five Ales in the ENTIRE WORLD, according to the bottle. I bring you Piraat, a 10.5% Belgian beer, a drink that packs quite a…well not punch (that would imply that you'd be doubled over wheezing after having a sip), but it’s really quite strong. While you couldn’t tell that the Pumpking had a high alcohol content, you can definitely tell that the Piraat does.

“Triple by strength, IPA by nature and history.”

It intrigues me that they would call a Belgian an IPA—previous to this, I thought they were two completely different styles of beer (well, they still are) and putting them together was something I’d never thought about. I was interested to see how exactly this beer would pull off two styles of beer.

Color: Light golden straw with a lot of carbonation. It pours with a great, thick, white head that stays until the last sip. Looks like a true Belgian beers.

Aroma: Smells like you would expect a Belgian to. It has a real yeasty, beer-y smell. Okay, I know “beer-y” isn’t a proper beer tasting term, but that’s the best way I know how to describe it. There’s a hint of fruit in the aroma as well, but I cant tell specifically which kind of fruit.

First Sip: A little more bitter than other Belgian beers. I cannot quite tell what I’m tasting. It does mostly taste like a Belgian—yeasty, slightly sweet, but it’s also got a bit of a hop taste in there. It’s a Belgian, but there’s a bitter taste in there that gives the slight impression of an IPA.

Mouthfeel: Very smooth. It definitely has a slight sweet, fruity taste, that may come partly from the hops, as it seems one moment, and partly from the “Belgian-ness” of the beer, as it seems the next moment. While you can tell that this is a high alcohol beer, it doesn’t hit you like a ton of bricks. It’s quite smooth, and a damn good beer.

Aftertaste: Mostly yeasty and fruity. It warms the back of your throat after you’ve swallowed, due to the high alcohol content.

I am amazed that they did seem to combine both a Belgian and an IPA, although this tastes mostly like a Belgian. There are hints of hops in there, but it’s definitely not overpowering, and a complete hophead may be baffled by this. But you’ll definitely want to try this, especially if you’re a fan of Belgians.

And once you’ve had a sip, well, you wont want to stop. So go ahead, have another one.

Manifesto

I cannot believe I haven't put this up here yet. Shame on me.

"If I Was A Beer" by Alyssa Lawrence

It couldn't be any Bud, Corona, or Coors
And not PBR, that's for sure.
You can forget that watery shit,
'Cause I don't like it one little bit.
The classless taste of college frats
is not how I would choose to bat.
I'd be something bitter, something dark
Something that would leave a mark.
A Guiness, a stout, or an S.O.B.,
A drink unafraid of getting dirty.
Or perhaps a pale ale, foam on top
The deliciously enticing taste of hops.
Dark, amber, red or gold,
Good beer just never gets old.
But if I had to choose just one
To be for a little fun,
Well then, GODDAMN!
I'd be a $200 bottle of SAMS!
Take that Miller and Natty Ice
You can never match my price.
Why don't you do yourself a favor
And try something with flavor!
You can say that I'm being too hard,
But I know I'm better - I'm a beer snob.

A note on the phrase "beer snob": I feel that "beer geek" would be a better choice of words here, but alas, it doesn't rhyme. "Snob" implies that there are very few beers that I hold in high esteem, when in fact I hold a LOT of beers in high esteem. It's true that I do look down on some beers, but I have tried every single crap beer mentioned in that poem (which is how I know they're crap). I've gone to college, I've had my share of PBR (oh, Emerson), and now it's time to start drinking good, tasty, delicious beers.