My first Pumpkin Ale of any sort and certainly the first I’ve ever heard of brewed in the UK. Brown 500ml bottle, best before July 2008, drank Sept 2007. Poured into a pint sleeve glass. Cloudy and moody looking, dirty brown, rusty colour. Large off-white foaming head. It doesn’t look very appertizing at all. The bottle claimed it was a golden amber ale, golden it is not. The aroma it is claimed will be of roasted veg and peaty malt, I got bad apples and yeast smells. It is "supernaturally spiced" with hints of roast pumpkin, cloves and peat. The label goes on to say I should find a fruity, sweet, herbal and bitter taste. It made me burp! The taste was of fizzy, old, off cider and a used towel. Not very beery at all. A nasty sweetness arrives as the beer warms up in the mouth, apple pie without the cream. This bottle was either off, or I have missed the boat and don’t understand the beer at all. This can’t be the same type of beer so many Americans crave for, or am I out of step with my RB’s and BA’s over the pond?

500ml bottle from Tesco. Amber colour with thin white head. Kind of a gingery spicy beer. Actually not too bad at all. I kinda like the spice. I shouldn’t, but I do and I don’t care. 3.5/5.0 Re-rate Sainsbury bottle 20th September 2008. Awful. Yeasty and spice aroma, nothing much in the body, poor finish