Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

It's pumkin ale time this month in the American beer world, and considering previous 'progressive' steps taken by the trappist monks of Spencer (creating the first trappist IPA to name one), it comes as no big surprise that they too deemed it necessary to produce one. Can shared with tderoeck, Marie, Christophe and Goedele. Off-white, mousy, medium thick head, bit irregular and opening in the middle, over a misty deep and warm orange blonde beer with pale amberish tinge. Aroma of indeed strong pumpkin spices including actual clove, dried ginger and some cinnamon, fried tomato peel, spice bread and 'speculoos', peanuts and perhaps a whiff of pumpkin soup, which is probably nothing more than autosuggestion. Fruity, restainedly sweet onset, medium carbonation, hints of apple peel and apricot, supple bready malt body, rusk- and soggy bread crust-like with a slight caramelliness to it, soaked in pronounced pumpkin beer spiciness, cloves and ginger upfront but cinnamon coming not far behind (though only subtly so and without much of the sweet retronasal aroma it usually provides); light herbal hop bitter note too, but kept in place so as not to interfere with the spices too much, which eventually do add a little bit of astringency as spices in beer often tend to do. Conceptually alone a very interesting beer - I would never ever have imagined a 'trappist pumpkin ale' to become reality - but judged as such, pleasant enough, very spicy though still highly drinkable and seemingly less sweet than many other American pumpkin beers that pop up in this time of the year. Underneath the spicing, this one cannot hide its typical Spencer house style, either.