It’s been a productive Sunday so far, getting the yard in shape, raking leaves, and other chores around the house. The kids went with a friend to go trick-or-treating at the church, and my wife went to go buy a new microwave oven. So, I’ve got the house to myself for the next half hour. It was a good opportunity to sit down, and have one of the pumpkin beers I recently bought, and see if I can find any new additions to my top 10 best pumpkin beers list.

Location: Poured into a curved pint glass from the can at my home in Bloomington, IL.

Numbers: 5.4% ABV, 21 IBUs, ~150 Calories

Appearance & Aroma: It’s solid orange in color, and fairly hazy. It had a decent bright white head on it when I first poured it, but it quickly fell to a very thin layer of tiny bubbles across the top. It has a lagery and lightly spiced aroma.

Taste & Feel: The body is medium in the mouthfeel is somewhat crisp. The crispness makes it hard to identify flavors up front, but there’s a little bit of lightly sweet pumpkin flavor there. In the middle, the sweetness grows and stands out above some cinnamon flavor in the background. However, it’s the spices that come through the most in the fairly dry finish. The bright spices last for a minute or so in the aftertaste.

Food Pairing: It went perfectly with the Betty Crocker pumpkin spice cookies my wife made (if you like pumpkin and sugar cookies, they’re an awesome mix of the two). It was also pretty light in flavor, so it would go great with a turkey sandwich made with Thanksgiving leftovers.

Overall Impression: Of the pumpkin beers I’ve tried, this one was one of the lightest in flavor and body that I’ve had. It reminded me of a pumpkin lager-style beer. That made it extremely drinkable, but I prefer pumpkin beers a bit more bold and flavorful. I think it would be a good pumpkin beer introduction for your typical light-beer drinker though. Overall, it was OK, but again, I prefer something with more bold pumpkin and spice flavors.

My Rating:

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