Southampton Pumpkin Ale

Brewed by Southampton Publick House
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Southampton, New York USA

Bomber, shared with NachlamSie. Pours copper with slight beige head. The aroma is serious cinnamon with some sweetness, and combines to make it strongly resemble those Fireball candies... if I concentrate more, I get some allspice and nutmeg, too. The flavor is some prickly carbonic notes at first, then more cinnamon. Other autumnal spices float around behind it, too, with some hints of caramel and wood. The finish is carbonic like tonic water. This doesn’t really get the pumpkin pie feel of most pumpkin beers because it focuses so heavily on the cinnamon. Not particularly impressive.

Pour is a clear orange/red with a small off white head. Aroma is of ginger and cinimmon. The flavor is spicy and slightly bitter. Lively carbonation. Body is thin.

medium amber color with little head. mild in flavor with hinds of nutmeg and clove. very little pumpkin flavor but still a nice choice

Pours a dark amber color with little head. It smells lightly of pumpkin spices and a little sweet. The taste is pleasant. There is a taste of pumpkin spice, but it is not so strong as to overpower the other beer flavors. This is a pretty good pumpkin ale.

This is a spiced beer, definitely not a pumpkin beer. The aroma is all cinnamon/all-spice with the taste following suit- watery malts dominate the rest of the beer. Where is the pumpkin?

650 ml. Clear copper with a medium-sized and lasting head. Aroma is cinnamon-allspice. Nutmeg shows up in the flavor a bit more, with help from the cinnamon and allspice. Some nice mild hop bittering and nearly imperceptible resin flavor on the finish. Spiced bubblegum aftertaste. Can’t really taste the pumpkin, though. Palate is light-medium and maybe slightly oily. As with so many pumpkin ales, the spices are a bit too dominating for my tastes, though not as bad as some. Still, the quality in the brew is there.

Pours copper/orange with a bubbly tan head. Spicy/semi-sweet aroma of light pumpkin, lots of allspice, nutmeg, and fairly strong cinnamon. Flavor is lighter than expected, and with much more emphasis on the spice than pumpkin, as well as some leafy hops towards the finish. Palate is light/medium, nicely spiced, but a somewhat watery.

Bomber courtesy of goldtwins. Pours a clear reddish-copper with a lot of rising bubbles and a dense, frothy, off-white head. The aroma is reminiscent of pumpkin pie but with an emphasis on the spice versus the pumpkin itself: allspice up front, lesser independent notes of cinnamon and nutmeg with pumpkin taking up the rear. The mouthfeel is on the light side of medium bodied, the carbonation is fine and fairly soft with a crisper end that I’ve noticed in any other pumpkin beers that I’ve sampled. The hops are actually noticeable, in the finish, but only subtly, in the mouthfeel. They certainly don’t contribute to the overall flavor profile. The flavor follows the nose with the spice out front and the pumpkin taking back seat. This is definitely one of the better crafted pumpkins that I’ve ever tried. My only "complaint" would be that I’d like to see the pumpkin and malt profile kicked up just a notch to match the level of the spices. If that cranks up the ABV, so be it, but I think it would be even better than it already is now. Thanks Larry for sending this one my way!