Tonight I'll be drinking Pumking from Southern Tier, a beer that incorporates that big, bulbous orange plant - the pumpkin. Quiz question - is pumpkin a fruit or a vegetable? If you google it, then you're a cheater and a failure. If you guessed vegetable, you are also a failure. It's a fruit! Pumpkin beers tend to be overdone in the pumpkin/spice department, so I'm generally not a fan. The last pumpkin beer I drank and truly enjoyed was the Summit Imperial Pumpkin Porter, back in March 2011. The Imperial Pumking is Southern Tier's autumn seasonal, coming in a 22oz bottle with 8.6% alcohol. Let's see how Southern Tier does with the pumpkin!
The label on the beer features an angry-looking pumpkin with a crown on it's head, in the traditional Southern Tier label style. The beer is a deep copper color, perfectly clear, with just a small amount of lace forming. Aroma is unlike anything I've ever smelled in a beer. Period. It's a strong smell of pumpkin bread and vanilla extract, very very sweet. Just a hint of spice in there, but it's hard to find in all the other sweet stuff. The taste really doesn't bring any surprises after the nose, it starts off with that pumpkin-bread sweetness. Then comes the faintest touch of cinnamon and nutmeg, and grainy caramel malts on top of it all - reminds me of gingerbread. The alcohol is well hidden in the flavor, but it brings plenty of warmth to the table. One thing I keep noticing is a powdery, chalky sensation the beer leaves after each sip. Like a mouthfull of nutmeg powder. I'm struggling to get past it.
Overall Rating: This beer features prominent pumpkin flavors, no doubt about it. It's a sweet, dessert-style beer, basically a pumpkin pie that's died and was reincarnated as a beer. I couldn't get past the chalky nutmeg, that made it hard for me to finish. Not a bad beer, but not for me. C+
The label on the beer features an angry-looking pumpkin with a crown on it's head, in the traditional Southern Tier label style. The beer is a deep copper color, perfectly clear, with just a small amount of lace forming. Aroma is unlike anything I've ever smelled in a beer. Period. It's a strong smell of pumpkin bread and vanilla extract, very very sweet. Just a hint of spice in there, but it's hard to find in all the other sweet stuff. The taste really doesn't bring any surprises after the nose, it starts off with that pumpkin-bread sweetness. Then comes the faintest touch of cinnamon and nutmeg, and grainy caramel malts on top of it all - reminds me of gingerbread. The alcohol is well hidden in the flavor, but it brings plenty of warmth to the table. One thing I keep noticing is a powdery, chalky sensation the beer leaves after each sip. Like a mouthfull of nutmeg powder. I'm struggling to get past it.
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