Summit - Imperial Pumpkin Porter

Recently Dunz and I have started to share the word of our beer blog with our friends, colleagues and acquaintances who love beer.  We have received some great feedback and are looking forward to sharing more of our beer tasting experiences with everybody.  One of the comments we received was directed towards our lack of reviewing any Summit beers.  To me, Summit is a staple beer at any bar you go to in the metro area.  Their pale ale recently received a silver medal at the Great American Beer Festival.  Its one of those breweries that us here in MN just take for granted.  They brew great beer, are friendly people, and actively participate in the community and promote their new creations.  So tonight I will take the time to write our first review of a Summit beer.

Summit started their Unchained series about a year and a half ago with Batch #01 Kolsch.  This series is designed to give the brewers at Summit a chance to flaunt their creative side when it comes to brewing beer.  Since the release of their Kolsch style brew they have released four other styles; Scottish 90/-, India Style Rye Ale, Belgian Style Golden Ale, and tonights beer of choice the Imperial Pumpkin Porter.  This was released back in November but I have been keeping a bottle in my fridge to review for about three months now.  I dont know why I havent cracked this one open since then but I figured now was as good a time as any.

This beer pours... no wait... beers dont pour, I pour them.... let me rephrase that.  As I pour this beer into my Summit branded pint glass a light tan head forms atop a very deep black beer.  The aromas are immediately noticeable.  A little coffee, sweet caramel malt and some pumpkin spice combine to form the backbone of the aroma.  The flavor is nicely balanced between the spices and the porter itself.  A roasty, coffee, malty are the flavors you will notice first.  As this brew finishes you find those pumpkin spices sneaking up on you to remind you this isnt your typical porter.  The finish is slightly bitter from the hops and roasted malts with hardly any hint of alcohol present.

Overall 5.0/6.0 - This is my kind of pumpkin beer.  One that is not so overpowering with the spices and pumpkin that you cant even discern the underlying beer.  This one does a good job keeping the base porter prominent while bringing in a nice cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg (I'm shooting from the hip here since I'm assuming those are your standard pumpkin spices) flavor to finish off your overall experience.  Its unfortunate that this is a limited release.  I hope Summit brews this one again in the fall.