Heartland Smiling Pumpkin Ale

Brewed by Greenpoint Beer Works
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Brooklyn, New York USA

Serve in Lager glass, Shaker, Tumbler

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brewtopia 10/21/06 Aroma is pumpkin, spices, some malt. Taste is the same. decent pumpkin beer.

GABF 2006. Called Greenpoint Smiling Pumpkin. Orange body. Nose is pumpkin pie, light spices, cinnamon, and a hint of gingerbread. Taste is pretty much the same. It’s like drinking a pumpkin pie. Light spice, cinnamon, some gingery notes, and a touch of nutmeg. Body is light medium with a controlled carbonation feel on the palate. Ends with more pumpkin pie flavors and cotrolled spices. Light gingerbread. Nice stuff!

Draught sampler at Empire State Building location. A lot of people consider pumpkin beers to be little more than a gimmick, and I can’t always argue as some of them are pretty awful. But when they’re on, I really dig ’em - and this one is most definately on. Colour is a lovely autumn gold. Aroma holds lots of spice notes - nutmeg, clove, cinnamon - with some sweetness from the honeyed pumpkin. Flavour is like pumpkin pie in liquid form, but there’s also a good beer in there, and the flavours mesh perfectly. Sometimes the spicey sweetness of these beers can get cloying, but this one is well-balanced and refeshing. Very nice stuff.

Clear orange, creamy white head. Nose held notes of warmed pumpkin pie and spicy cinnamon. Good spiced flavor throughout with just a touch of hop bitterness late. Light to medium bodied, light carbonation, spiced bitter finish. It’s decent, but not a standout...

Faint average pumpkin aroma. A solid pumpkin offering. Enough to be noticeable but isn’t too much. Not amazing like Elevator’s Pumpkin beer.

On tap at Heartland Brewery, 51rd Street and 6th Avenue, NYC. Clear golden amber ale having small diminishing head. Nice spicy (allspice or nutmeg?) aroma. No discernable carbonation. Medium bodied ale that starts with a slightly sweet malt with notable nutmeg flavor and slight bitterness. Finishes slightly dry with average length light bitterness. A nice drinkable pumpkin beer that will make you smile. Goes well with BBQ ribs.

On tap at times square November 2005. Poured semi-clear amber coloring with a mix of spice and hops in the aroma. Taste was very light at first. Then a small bite of bitterness, followed by an some pumpkin. Aftertatse was almost like orange spice with some other spice coming in, the ginger I guess. A decent beer. The batch I had didn’t have a "lingering pumpkin finish" more of a hint of a one, and overall it was mostly light with some spice underneath.

On tap at the location near Times Square. Dark copper pour, good thick white lacing. Aroma is slighlty phenolic and medicinal - mellows out to a ripening vegetable scent. Flavor has some Christmas spice, a bit of caramel, finishes with a sweet cinammon candy like flurry. Decently thick mouthfeel.

UPDATED: NOV 3, 2006 Draught: This one pours a crystal clear, slightly orangish, dark golden color. There was a bit of an off-white head on it, but it left quite a bit of lacing. The aroma was basically pumpkin pie spices (ginger, clove, cinnamon), with not much malt coming through at all. Yet, they weren’t overpowering as some others in this style tend to be. The taste was fairly similar. The spices weren’t overdone, but the beer behind them was a little light. More malts were needed to provide a better balance. Still, it wasn’t bad at all. A good pumpkin beer.

Brewtopia 11/12/05 Deep golden in color with a small white head. Aroma is all spice-cinamon,ginger, with no real pumpkin charcater in either the aroma or flavor. Another example of a spiced beer, where’s the pumpkin?