Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale

I still have a couple fall seasonal/pumpkin beers in my keezer, and 'tis the season for them.  I pulled out a Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale last night.  It's been a while since I tried anything from Smuttynose, but I remember liking what I've had of theirs well enough.

Vittles:
Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer
5.84% abv
35 IBUs

Score:
Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 23/25
Taste: 37/40
Mouthfeel: 8/10
Style: 5/5
Drinkability: 8/10
Overall: 90/100

Impression:
I could smell the nutmeg and cloves as I poured the beer, and I love those aromas.  I had to get my schnoz in a little closer to smell the pumpkin and cinnamon, but it smells like a solid, well-balanced pumpkin ale.  The flavors are a bit stronger and more robust than I expected based on the aroma, so that was a pleasant surprise.  The medium body rounds out the beer quite nicely.  I like how the bitterness of the hops is well-matched to the sweetness and earthiness of the other ingredients.  This is one of the better pumpkin beers I've had so far this season.  Hopefully I can snag a case of this stuff cheap at the end of the fall season.

Cheers!

Harpoon UFO Pumpkin

It looks like I have maybe another 3-4 fall seasonals in my keezer.  The one I grabbed to go with dinner tonight was Harpoon UFO Pumpkin.  It's probably been around four years since I've had any UFO beers, and I remember liking the varieties I had well enough, so let's see how the Pumpkin stacks up:

Vittles:
Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer
5.9% abv
20 IBUs
~11 SRM

Score:
Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 20/25
Taste: 34/40
Mouthfeel: 8/10
Style: 5/5
Drinkability: 8/10
Overall: 84/100

Impression:
The beer poured very nicely, and the head retained decently before falling to a slim ring.  It left very little lacing on the glass.  The aroma has a nice malt and pumpkin background, but the main player for the nose is the spice -- it smells warm and earthy, with notes of cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg.  The flavors are much the same, rounded out with a medium-full mouthfeel and a smooth finish.  It's got all the flavors of fall that I love in a good pumpkin ale, but the balance is a little off, since the spices almost obscure the malt and pumpkin flavors.  I'll be hunting the distributors at the end of the season to see if I can pick up a fall variety case of UFO on the cheap.

Cheers!

Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale

It's the fall, so of course I'm eager to try the fall seasonals and various pumpkin ales I come across.  Sidenote: I had a sip of Southern Tier's Pumking on tap a couple weeks back, and I was floored by how tasty it was, so I feel like every pumpkin beer I have from here on out will necessarily pale by comparison.  Shipyard's Pumpkinhead Ale somehow found its way into my keezer somehow, so I figured it was time to give it a try:

Vittles:
Herbed/Spiced/Vegetable Beer
4.7% abv

Score:
Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 16/25
Taste: 28/40
Mouthfeel: 6/10
Style: 4/5
Drinkability: 5/10
Overall: 67/100

Impression:
From bottle to glass, there was almost too much carbonation.  Not that it almost frothed over or anything, but it looked more like ginger ale than beer -- the bubbles were too large for beer.  Thankfully, that settled down after a few minutes.  The aroma is very faint.  I mainly smell cinnamon and nutmeg, and there's something warm and earthy in the background, but I don't smell any pumpkin or malt.  The flavor is pretty much non-existent, except for a brief taste of spices up front and an extremely faint pumpkiny after-taste.  The after-taste almost seems a little musty, too.  I feel like I'm drinking fizzy, slightly flavored water.  The mouthfeel is thinner than I was expecting, and the high levels of carbonation sting the tongue without adding anything pleasant to the experience.  This beer sort of leaves a taste like bile in my mouth after a while, which knocks a couple points off the drinkability factor.  Overall, I wouldn't recommend this beer.  I usually like Shipyard beers -- they're not anything spectacular, but they're usually decent, so I'm kind of surprised by how much I dislike this particular beer.  Oh, well.  If it ever finds its way into my keezer again, I can always cook with it.  It'd probably make for a tasty pork and sauerkraut slow-cooker meal.

Cheers!

Magic Hat Pistil Dandelion Ale

I hate dandelions with a burning passion, so when I saw the Pistil dandelion ale in my Magic Hat sampler, I thought it'd be a nice victory beer -- mow down the damn things in my yard, then guzzle their cousins.  That'll teach them not to grow in my yard anymore, right?  I had no idea what to expect from a dandelion ale:

Vittles:

Herbed/Spiced/Vegetable Beer

4.5% abv

20 IBUs

3 SRM

dry-hopped

Appearance: 7/10

It's a dull, hazy, golden color with about an inch and a half of mostly white head.  The head fell pretty quickly and left little to no lacing on the glass.  It doesn't look overly appealing to me, to be honest, and I think that's due to the dullness of the color.

Aroma: 18/25
Herbal and grassy notes hit me first, followed by earthy, floral, and spicy scents.  The malt isn't all that prominent, maybe a little bready.  There's also a mustiness in the background that detracts from the overall aroma.

Taste: 30/40
Grassy and vegetal flavors dominate, with the breadiness of the malt in the background.  There are some very muted earthy, floral, and spicy flavors in the background, as well.  I don't taste the herbal character as clearly as I could smell it, but the mustiness does come through pretty clearly, unfortunately.

Mouthfeel: 7/10
A clean and crisp mouthfeel, with a medium-light body and lowish levels of carbonation don't really add anything to my enjoyment.

Style: 5/5
The guidelines for a spice, herb, or vegetable beer vary according to the beer that's used as a base.  Magic Hat has never had trouble coloring within the lines for ales.

Drinkability: 6/10
After I've finished the one, I don't want another.  I probably won't have this beer again for quite some time, since I was not overly impressed with it.  The musty smell and flavor were a big turn-off for me, as was the dullness in the color.  I'd have one if there were no other beers available, but I wouldn't buy it again.

Overall: 73/100
It's not an overly bad beer, but it's not all that great, either.  If you like grassy, herbal, or floral qualities in your beer, you'd probably like this one more than I do.  It's not that I don't like those flavors in beer, but they just didn't combine in a way that pleased by taste buds in this beer.

Cheers!