Buffalo Bills America’s Original Pumpkin Ale

Buffalo Bills Brewery
Brewed at Pyramid Breweries
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Hayward, California USA

Serve in Lager glass, Tumbler

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   add pic

Pours hazy orange amber with tan head. Aroma is caramel and pumpkin. Taste is sweet with very little spiceyness. Very watery mouthfeel with some stixkyness on the finish.

Taunted as originally brewed by George Washington himself, I was quite curious to try this brew. Sadly though, that is where the excitement stopped. This is a marginal brew to say the least and I hope that Washington’s version was much, much better! (or maybe this is why his teeth were wood!!) Thin and very watery much like that runny juice on an old slice of pumpkin pie that has sat around too long. I most likely will not be going back to this brew ever again. There are definitely many more pumpkin ales to enjoy from other breweries.

First rating in like a year, its good to be back. Anyhoo I know I should go all Beer Snob and hate on this cuz its Pyramid, but no dice...I dig it. Aroma reminded me of Ben n Jerrys Oatmeal ice cream mixed with pumpkin, which needless to say is pretty bomb. It grabs your palate firmly but not like its trying to prove anything...much in the way I imagine Alec Baldwin shakes hands. This beer is like college one-night stands: not pretty but still makes me happy and I want like 20 of em...which I can do since this bitch is only 5.2%. Maybe I’m a sucker for diggin Pyramid (I like Purple Haze too) but tis the season for some friggin pumpkin ale and I can knock these back all night and have a good time doin it. Sure its no PumpKing, but what is?

Well its the original, but not even close to one of the better pumpkin ales. Some slight pumpkin spice on the nose. Beer pours an amber orange. Try as hard as I might I cannot get a foam head to last more than five seconds. Upfront theres is a little bit of malty sweetness followed by a fleeting spice flavor that hints at pumpkin and nutmeg but doesn’t really last. Lower end of medium bodied with some light carbonation. Overall its an ok pumpkin beer, not the best but certainly not the worst.

big pumpkin spice overlapping mild caramel aroma. dark orange color with good clarity. no head at all. heavy syrupy sweetness, with pumpkin spice stealing the show. tastes underattenuated Not much carbonation. drying astringency lingers. I do like pumpkin beers, and this was one that turned me on to the style. Not bad, but not very quaffable.

22 Sept 2011, bottle. slightly cloudy orange, no bubbles. looks like iced tea. smells like a skunky beer with spiced pumpkin background. med/thin body and moderately fizzy. sweet pumpkin, not to spiced, tart finish and mediocre beer flavor. meh.

Very fizzy out of the bottle into the glass. The appearance is is medium orange with mild turbidity. The aroma is of pumpkin, vegetables and a bit of citrus. The flavor is dominated by spices and vegetables with some sweetness. I don’t really care for vegetable flavor in pumpkin ales, this wasn’t bad but it’d be better if the pumpkin and spices and even the amber ale sweetness were amplified and the vegetable flavor was at least minimized.

Lackluster. The aroma is off, smells like a cheap beer with some slight notes of pumpkin spice. Light bodied and watered down. Again, lackluster.

Yellow-orange, mildly hazy appearance. White head quickly fading to minimal. Bubbles on side of glass. Pronounced, strong carbonation. (artificial?) pumpkin aroma, and not much else. Pretty much just watered-down pumpkin. Medium sweet taste. Boring bare-bones pumpkin ale.

12 oz bottle from craft beer outlet. Pretty good pumpkin ale, while I am making pumpkin beer at the same time.