Dogfish Head Punkin Ale

12 oz Bottle -- Orange-brown with a soapy off-white head. Heavy spice notes on the nose. Good level of sweetness, but I feel a little heavy handed with spice.

12oz bottle at K&L. Orange with an off-white head. Heavily spiced and sweet aroma with nutmeg making itself known. The flavor is also heavily spiced, medium sweet, and not too heavy on the malt or hop flavor. Actual pumpkin is there but seems light compared to the spice, which makes this seem more like a pumpkin-spice cookie in liquid form. Medium bodied. Interesting take on the style, and I like where they went with it, though it is still a bit messy.

Amber appearance with a little white head. Has an aroma with pumpkin, cinnamon, and clove. Has good carbonation with a medium body. Has a pumpkin and spice flavor. Pumpkin dominated beer but drinkable for those that aren’t big pumpkin beer fans (like myself).

For pumpkin ales, this is one of my favs. I can’t stay far enough away from pumpkin beers normally. This one however is balanced well. Try it.

Bottle. Clear amber orange, frothy off white head. Aroma of many spices, roasted malt, yeast, and especially brown sugar. Flavor for the most part mirrors aroma but with more pronounced spiced pumpkin and caramel. Ends lightly bitter, nice dry finish.

Poured an amber color with a decent white head. Aroma of pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon and some malt. While I am not typically a big fan of the pumpkin ales this brew was a pleasant surprise. Nice taste of spices, cinnamon and a enough pumpkin flavor to qualify as a pumpkin ale but not so much it turned me off of the brew. Sweet and warming at the same time. Pretty nice.

On tap at the Bavarian Lodge. Though spiced ales are often hit or miss for me, I had decently high hopes for this one. It turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. There’s lots of spice on the nose. Nutmeg, cinnamon sugar, and brown sugar are quite big. Otherwise, it smells quite strong like vegetable juice with a bit of pumpkin. The color is fairly cool because it reminds me of pumpkin pie, with some creamy head and good lacing. The feel of this beer was quite a bit lighter than expected as well as the flavors. Spice dominate the flavor profile just a bit too much with pumpkin and other mellow fruits there as well. This one would be better served with more prominent brown ale qualities with the pumpkin and spice taking on a supporting role. This really wasn’t bad overall, but just didn’t work exactly for me.

Attractive and warming. I feel in past years the spices have been more well defined, and the bitterness balanced better. Still one of my favorite seasonal ales and one of my favorite DFH offerings.