BOOZE TYPE: Beer
PRICE: $4.99 at the Whole Foods Bowery Beer Room
RATING: B
It finally feels like October! Like a week before the end of October. As I told my roommate, I want my money back. (“For… October?” she asked. “Did you make a down payment?” “Yes,” I said. “Impulse purchase.”) It is chilly, and I am on vacation from work until Tuesday because my mom is coming to visit and I am very excited, as she is the lady responsible for me being such a lush.
So! I filled up a growler, and got something for myself to sip on whilst I wait for her to arrive from the airport. I love pumpkin beer madly, so I picked one of the larger bottles off the cold shelf. The nice guy who has served me there before, Jon, asked me if I’d had it before, and said it was an interesting one–very pumpkiny, and with a high alcoholic punch.
This does have 9% alcohol, and… wow, it is definitely a pumpkin brew like no other. Most pumpkin ales taste more like ale than pumpkin, but this one gets directly in your face with a heavy toasted sweet scent, like Halloween candy. The beer really is remarkably sweet. There’s caramel malt in the mix, and that comes out strongly, making the final taste in your mouth something akin to candy corn. The scent reminds me of the ridiculous pumpkin scents from goth perfume warehouse Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.
So, it’s weird, and it’s sweet, and it’s pumpkiny. Do I like it? …yeah, I’d say so. It’s one of the weirdest beers I’ve tasted, but it’s good to mix things up. Most other pumpkin brews start to taste a little the same after a while, without much variety in the mix. And, unexpectedly, this went quite well with a spicy chipotle lamb chili!
BUY IT AGAIN: Probably not, honestly, unless I want to go “Taste this!!” at someone.
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