Shipyard - Smashed Pumpkin

Pumpkin - it makes everything better, right?  Well, in the craft beer world that isn't always the case.  It's that time of year where breweries across the country attempt to make their version of a pumpkin ale.  For better or for worse, it's almost expected these days.  You will find ales that just go WAY overboard on the spices.  Other ales will be woefully under-attenuated, creating a sweet, cloying pumpkiny mess.  I don't know if its a right of passage for these brewmasters but one thing is for certain, not every brewery should make a pumpkin-based beer.  AMIRITE?!

Shipyards iteration is one of the first pumpkin ales to show up in MN this season.  The last beer I had from these guys made me almost quit drinking all together.  Double Old Thumper was horrid.  It was one of the few craft beers I had to dump down the sink.  I know, its alcohol abuse.  But seriously, had you tasted what I did, you would have realized that the abuse onus was on Shipyard, not myself.  I'm going to give this brew a fair chance, though. I don't like being bias towards a brewery without sampling a broad selection of their line-up.  Smashed Pumpkin, lets see what u got...

The overall appearance of Smashed Pumpkin is very impressive.  The bottle art is clean and very festive.  The brew has almost the same, orange coloring as the bottle, minus the florescence of course.  The aromas are very spicy.  Plenty of pumpkin spice, cinnamon, a hint of nutmeg... so far so good.  My first sip... damnet!  They boondoggled me again!  This tastes like somebody mixed Busch Light and Hot 100 in a glass bottle and capped it with some gold foil.  Initially, the alcohol isn't harsh but the spicy cinnamon is.  I can't get past it.  There is some malty sweetness lingering in the background as the initial cinnamon blast wore off.  As everything warms the more subtle flavors start to become apparent.  At this point, it actually tastes like a very spicy pumpkin pie.  So there is a little relief in sight.  The alcohol isn't hot but does provide a nice warming feeling on the way down.

Overall - Ill be honest, I thought this beer was done for after my first sip.  Luckily, I stuck it out and found a drinkable pumpkin ale underneath the cinnamon blizkreig that I was initially greeted with.  If you find a bottle, serve it warmer than you normally would.  Its best flavors come to the surface when its just slightly chilled.  I can't say Ill be getting another bottle of this next year.  At least I wasn't forced to pour it down the drain.

To our readers - Do any of you live in an area that gets Shipyard's regular brews?  I want to know if this breweries beer just doesn't travel well or if they legitimately make crappy beer.  Most other people seem to have a good opinion of their beer.  Maybe its just me.  Let me know in the comments what you think!

Shipyard Brewing - Double Old Thumper

Let me start out by saying that I have been looking forward to cracking open this bottle since the day I bought it.  Classified as a Strong Bitter or Double English Pale Ale, this brew is in a style class that you don't come across every day.  I am also a sucker for English-based styles.  So when a brewery decides to make a big, "Americanized" version of a classic, my ears perk up and I become intrigued.  

Double Old Thumper is a collaboration brew between England's Ringwood Brewery and America's Shipyard Brewing Co. based in Maine.  The beer itself is a double version of the British Grand Champion beer Old Thumper, brewed and distributed in England by Ringwood.  It appears as though Ringwood essentially handed over the recipe to Shipyard and gave them free reign over the recipe and distributions rights in the US.  Personally, I'm not really a huge fan of this arrangement, assuming the way I described it is accurate.  A beer is only as good as the brewers behind it.  And that includes the brewery too!  So when you hand off the recipe to another brewery, it becomes a different beer, and should be marketed as such.  But, regardless of my opinion, it doesn't change the fact that I have a beer in front of me that needs some drinkin'!

The initial aroma and look of this 11.2% ABV brew is very inviting.  A powerful wave of rustic hop aromas are easily found after I finish filling my mug.  The color is a brilliantly clear dark amber, similar to a cherry wood.  Unfortunately, this is where the good aspects of this beer end.  My first sip tasted like a volatile cocktail of Karkov vodka, fermented raisins and moldy barley grains...  I really don't want to go back for another sip, but I will just to further reiterate how bad the first taste was.  Yup... still terrible.  The aftertaste left behind is almost sour and leaves that slick, oily feel coating my tongue.  I'm throwing in the towel... this monstrosity is being banished to the drain gods.

I couldn't stop making this face for at least 5 minutes after taking my first sip... awful.

Overall - I don't think I really need to explain any further how bad this beer was.  By far, this has been my worst beer experience in a long time.  Shipyards quality control must have been drunk when they tasted this beer.  There is no way this should have been distributed as is.  I feel bad for Ringwood Brewery, their good name has been sullied.  I wont be chomping at the bit to taste anything else from Shipyard until I drink enough to forget what Double Old Thumper tasted like.