Fruit Crate Pumpkin Ale

50cl bottle at 9% ABV and $4 pours with a clear deep copper body that has thin golden hues and supports a light tan head of foam. The aroma offers up vague winter spices, fruity notes like ripe red apples and then faint pumpkin and boozy heat. The taste is sweet with sugary malts, a molasses type sweetness and then a thin mix of apples and pumpkin with light winter spices hovering overhead. Overall this is too sweet and just too little pumpkin going on. The ABV is pretty well hidden though. Interesting.

Pour is a dark brown with a small tan head. Aroma is a slight spice and a slight caramel malt. Flavor is a rich malt with some alcohol and sweetness. Where is the pumpkin pie spice? There is nothing "pumpkin pie" about this beer. It’s just a heavy malt billed beer with a lot of alcohol. Craptacular.

Bottle. Dark amber beer with a dark cream head. Grapefruti aroma. Grapefruit flavor with light dark malts. Medium bodied. Grapefruit and light spice lingers with light dark malts. Little pumpkin flavor and definitely no pumpkin pie spice - makes it one of the better ’pumpkin’ beers.

Bottle from BevMo Salinas. Nose is a light pumpkin like a candle burning in a carved one gives off on Halloween and a hint of sweetness. Clear copper with a small beige head. Flavor is a bit of light bitterness, tobacco, cardboard with only a slight bit of pumpkin. Not my kind of pumpkin ale with no apparent spices to perk it up. I prefer the spice part of the spice/herb/vegetable category.

Bottle from the Arden BevMo. Pours dark amber with a frothy beige head. Aroma is a smooth roast brown sort of thing. Not a trace of pie spice (there isn’t supposed to be any). Med body with frothy carb. Flavor is slightly earthy roast brown. There’s a veg component. Likely pumpkin, but I’m not good with unspiced pumpkin. It coats the mouth a little bit. Suddenly I get a little hint of the aroma when a carved pumpkin gets overheated by a candle. It’s pretty dry. Suggesting astringent. Not a trace of heat. The finish is pretty much tasty brown ale, perhaps with a pumpkin seed hint. Ah the elusive flavor of unspiced pumpkin. Kudos to these brave brewers who eschewed pie spice!