#519

Wow. I have some catching up to do. A few weeks back, I had a party and bought some beer (Me? Buy beer? Shocking!). It was my intention to sample those beers, but I never got around to it. I was in Texas, I have been busy with this, that, and other thing. On top of that, I found a 12-pack of seasonal (winter) Sam Adams beers. So, needless to say, I am backed up a bit. At least eight new beers await me in the fridge. Many are autumn beers.

So tonight, I cracked open Punkin Ale (note the spelling) from the Dogfish Head Craft Brewery. You may recall I have had their beer before. I am at the point now where I almost anticipate trying a new beer from them. "Punk", as it is known, is no exception to their brewing history. They know what they are doing.

They claim it is a full-bodied brown ale with real pumpkin, brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Right from the get-go, you know you are getting something cool. The key? Real pumpkin. Oh sure, alot of places call their beers pumpkin ales, but they don't really contain pumpkins. Seasonal spices, yes, but not real pumpkins. As I understand it(take that with salt...what do I know?), pumpkin is hard to brew with, so alot of places dont really do it.

On the pour, the body was a light colored brownish orange (go figure - a brown ale with pumpkin turns out brown orange! No way!). The head, which was a light tan, was not one finger high and disappeared rather quickly, but the lacing was good. The body was certainly full, as they said, but a bit malty. Not bad or overpowering, mind you, but malty for sure. A strong suggestion of sweetness was there too, but I think it was more of a caramel sweetness. On the finish, the sweetness seemed to transform...I'm not sure how that happened but it did. As one would expect with an ale, a bitterness was present as well. I think the sweetness gave way to the bitterness.

Interestingly enough, I honestly can't tell you exactly when I tasted the pumpkin. Go figure.

Life beer #519 clearly gets a 4 out of 5. Pretty good stuff.