Southampton Pumpkin Ale

Draught at Mad Mex, Monroeville. Terrific nose if you like pumpkin pie. Spicy and sweet. Clear amber golden with foamy off-white lacing head. Medium bodied with medium carbonation. Starts with caramel and pilsner malty taste, followed then by huge pumpkin pie spices until the end. Medium sugary sweetness with light carbonic tang. Light alcohol, with mild bitter finish. Nutty pumpkin pie spicy finish and dry after.

I’m really surprised that people can actually drink this one. I gave it a good try and will buy it again to make sure I didn’t have a bad bottle. But man it was B-A-D, it just didn’t appeal to my palate at all. The aroma is better than the flavor, too bad to because the dark red/bronze color is beautiful. From the bottle.

On tap at the Bocktown. The appearance is clear and the color is slightly darker than the ubiquitous pale yellow lager. Slight pumpkin aroma with spices. Additionally there is an interesting smell of lightly tomato sauced elbow macaroni. Very thin head. Decent carbonation greets the palate and this is welcomed. Taste is not as bitter as I expected but there certainly is a veggie spice in there that takes its place. I find this beer a little tart at times. Tho the veggy finish is present, this is a generally acceptable pumpkin beer compared to other pumpkin beers that are over the top in bitter spices instead of pumpkins. Not quite as good as Arcadia Jaw Jacker.

Clear bronze, with a smallish head. Nice aroma of nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice and pumpkin. Flavor is pretty much the same, although it seems a bit thin. I like how there is some actual pumpkin flavor and not just a bunch of spices assaulting the palate.

Bottle. Clear - filtered. Copper burnt amber color with a patchy off-white head. Decent creamed pumpkin nose, mildly spicy, with a mild caramel malt note as well. Fresh first taste, a little waterey, or thin, but flvor-wise it’s mild pumpkin spice, more pumpkin pulp than spice. Finishes a little thin and empty, actually.

Typical appearance of a pumpkin ale, orange body, creamy head. The nose has a slight spicyness amid the slight malt aroma. The flavor had a noticeable pumpkin tinge, malts, a small amount of spice, not a lot in the way of hops. The mouthfeel is medium/thick. The finish is clean, a little malty sweetness on the palate. Not bad, definitely not the best pumpkin ale, but definitely worthwhile.

Pours a clear orange with a thick, foamy off white head. Really nice blend of cinnamon spice and pumpkin in the nose. Very creamy smelling. Pumpkin pie. The flavor is alot of pumpkin, with the cinnamon spice still there, but more in the background. Definitely some malts in there too to give it some substance and a little balance. Really nice pumpkin beer. Neither flavors dominated the other which is what I enjoy in pumpkins. This brewery almost never disappoints.

Sampled on draft at the Rivertowne Pub this beer poured a medium red-brown color with a small tan head. The aroma was lightly malty with strong notes of cinnamon and nutmeg. The flavor was lightly malty and a bit tangy with overwhelming notes of cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom, Dryish overall. Too spicy for my taste.