Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale

Brewed by Shipyard Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Portland, Maine USA

12 oz bottle into lager glass. Expired in January. Hopefully still good? Fantastic pumpkin pie aroma, full of spices. Pours hazy gold with a dissipating head and decent lacing. The taste is everything I want in a pumpkin beer--very good. Taste is sweet with very little bitterness. Fully carbonated but a little on the thin side. Doesn’t taste old at all. I think it’s a very good pumpkin beer, so I’m a little surprised at the average score here. I wish I would have had this during the pumpkin beer taste test my brother and I had on Halloween.

Flavors taste of fake pumpkin and nutmeg with an unpleasant aftertaste. avoid!

12oz bottle. Pours a straight orange color with no head to speak of. The smell is of pumpkin pie with a slight sourness on the end. The taste is the same, but with no sourness to speak of. VERY watery. Wouldn’t buy again.

Pours thin, surprisingly light in color . Head retention low, I just had an Avery ale that gave me an inch in the same glass, this one I can shake around in my pils glass for 15 seconds and get about 3/4 of a centimeter for a few seconds. First thing that hit me when taking a whiff was SWEET. Then spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, a bit of honey perhaps? No hops aroma that I can call out. Taste is thankfully less sweet than the nose tricked me into thinking - sweet, sour, bitterness to balance but low IBUs. Thin palate, light body, carbonation like a just opened Pepsi. Finish stretches out with nutmeg/spice notes and dissipates the sweetness enough to get you to take another sip. Other reviews mentioned wheat and I would say that’s an apt comparison and either wheat or a weizen yeast is part of this party. I was pleasantly surprised once I tasted and realized it wasn’t going to be the sugar-bomb my nose said was promised. Still, seems a bit too sweet for me and I’m a believer that a pumpkin beer can and should have actual pumpkin and/or squash aroma or taste. Wouldn’t be bad for a college Halloween party quaffer.

golden amber body with white head. strong pumpkin aroma with little sweetness and hops. unassuming. little evolution.

pours golden yellow with small white head. aroma is caramel malts, pumpkin, nutmeg. drinks very smooth with the light flavor of pumpkin pie. I love this beer, its like drinking candy.

A: Pours a nice light golden yellow with a nice fizzy head. S: Canned pumpkin mixed with all the wonderful spices that make up a perfect pumpkin pie. The aroma is very inviting. T: The taste is of a nice light wheat like which allows the pumpkin and spices to really come out right at the start. The taste sort of dies in the middle, but the nutmeg seems to linger. It’s the lightest of the pumpkin beers I have tried. M: Nice and ligt.

Pours a hazy golden-orange color with a dense foamy white head. Aroma is reminiscent of apple cider with a good dose of cinnamon, mild grainy nose, sweet overall nose and ends with a nutmeg and allspice type of spiciness. Flavor starts off kinda watery as a whole, spices are there but don’t present a good presence. Flavor again reminds me of a mildly spiced apple cider with the beer being a bit dryer but still carrying a pronounced cinnamon flavor to go with the mild grainy and noble hop spicy ending of the brew. Beer has a very low body but has a high fine carbonation creating a smooth feeling within your mouth. Overall the aroma is good while the flavors are a bit weak but I would much rather have this to the over spiced brew.