I could totally be a pirate, right?
Like I said, this review is for The Great Pumpkin Imperial Pumpkin Ale, brewed by Heavy Seas as part of their Mutiny Fleet brewing series. I just looked it up, and I discovered that there is another pumpkin beer called The Great'er Pumpkin Ale which was aged in bourbon barrels, is a very limited release, and holy shit I need to get me some of that. I think I might have missed it, but there's other beers that were aged in this way coming out soon. Look here to stay updated: http://www.hsbeer.com/beers/Anyway, lets stay focused on the beer at hand and NOT get antsy about all those other beers.
This beer (and really all Mutiny Fleet beers) is 8% ABV, and it goes up from there.
Color: A brown-orange caramel color. Pour a lighter gold color, but both the pour and the beer in the glass is quite dense. There is no way to see through this--it is like the murky ocean moments before a storm, and them BAM a wave hits you and suddenly you're battling with Cthulhu, except he has a pumpkin for a head. This beer has a thin white head that disappears almost immediately. There is little to no visible carbonation.
Aroma: Pumpkin--pretty much the staple of pumpkin beers by now. I think it's a requirement that they have to smell like pumpkin or some variation of that. What makes this beer different is that it smells more pumpkin-y than most, and instead of spices or cinnamon or hops being the secondary aroma, this one has malts. Not only that, but you can practically smell the alcohol. Not only that, but you're suddenly convinced that piracy is our only option and you invest in triangular shaped hats and bandannas.
First Sip: You get a good hit of the pumpkin, followed by the swift realization that this beer is different. It's strong for one. For two, you can taste pumpkin, bitterness, and malts. It also has a strong alcohol presence--one might describe this beer as boozy (which is not a bad thing). It creates quite the first impression, and if the last beer you tried was the Pumple Drumpkin then let us make this analogy: Pumple Drumpkin was a nice quiet float down a river. The Great Pumpkin is battling a raging sea, swallowing mouthfuls of salt water, and trying to avoid gigantic whirpools that lead down into the depths of Davy Jones' locker.
Mouthfeel: There's more spices now, but it's still the pumpkin up front. It's a new sensation to taste pumpkin, malts, and alcohol. There's also an ever present bitterness that comes from the hops, although I feel they're there to add even more body to this beer through the bitterness, and to enhance the other tastes, rather than to be tasted on their own. The spices come through a bit more at the end. And of course, there's that malty, boozy taste that makes you deliciously light headed. This is a strong, bold beer, and really damn good. It's subtle in some aspects (the spices, for example), but nothing really hides in this beer.
Aftertaste: That kind of boozy taste, bitterness, and spices. This sticks around and doesn't fade, just like your desire to buy a parrot doesn't fade, just like your thirst for adventure will never leave, just like the fact that although you defeated The Great Pumpkin Cthulhu, you know he's only biding his time down in the deeps until he can strike again.
Congratulations, you are now a pirate.
OTHER NEWS: Today I helped to home brew beer, which was a lot of fun. To be honest, 85% of it is standing around drinking beer waiting for the right time to throw stuff into the beer you're brewing. Okay, so you don't really throw stuff in, but you get what I mean. A blog post on that experience should be up soon! And I say that with trepidation because I'm really bad at updating this. But let's stay positive and I'll try and get it up before Thanksgiving.
No comments:
Post a Comment