HALLOWEEN
SPECIAL!
Sam 'Sea Monster' Corbeil invites Great Lakes Pumpkin
ale over for a bite...
LAST-MINUTE PANIC! SIX NO-SHIP GIFT IDEAS
Buy a GamePass for a friend |
 Beer of the month club membership |
 Full Tilt Poker gift certificates |
 Amazon.com gift card |
 Give a better life with Heifer.org |
  Brew Your Own magazine subscription |
Great Lakes Pumpkin ale review
Submitted by Sam 'Sea Monster' Corbeil
Blanket statement: Halloween is the greatest and
best holiday there is!
Well maybe it isn't a "holiday" per se, in that it's not recognised by the government and endowed with a day off of work like Thanksgiving or the ever popular Labour Day, but it is great nonetheless. All year round citizens spend countless hours meandering their way through life wishing, hoping, daydreaming that they were someone else, and doing something far more exciting than filing paper work or stocking shelves.
Well dear readers, Halloween is your day! When else can you transform yourself into a completely different person with out the hassles or pain of a complete facial reconstruction a la Nicolas Cage in John Woo's spectacular tour de force, Face/Off? Or deal with the embarrassment of going on national TV and posing for the bare all, "Before" pictures in your worst and most revealing underpants weeks before you get your life altering The Swan makeover?
Great Lakes Pumpkin ale
Never, my friends. Never but on that one magical night we call All Hallows Eve!
Yes, Halloween is the one day in every year where you can toss away all the worries of the workaday world and become someone much more exciting than your pathetic selves.
Maybe you want to be Count Dracula? Or possibly Count Chocula? Whatever! The options are endless.
And it's in the spirit of this wonderful Holiday that I review the seasonal release of Great Lakes Pumpkin ale. For they took an average everyday Ale, dressed it up with fancy spices and presented it to the public in a shiny new bottle!
Driving out to the brewery, I'm not ashamed to tell you, dear readers, that I was excited. This was to be my first experience with a real pumpkin ale. I'd heard of them before, but I'd never tasted one. I was about to have my pumpkin cherry "popped".
After purchasing the bottle and getting home, I poured it out into a pint glass. It poured a perfectly seasonal orange, rust colour. It possessed a fluffy white head that quickly dissipated, leaving absolutely no trace of lace on the glass.
Immediately upon smelling the ale I could detect its spiciness. The nutmeg and clove jumped right out at me. And upon further inspection of the bottle, it told me that in fact the ale was brewed using not just pureed pumpkins but also nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and all spice. The nose knows, dear readers. The nose knows.
With all this spiciness on the nose, I was quite intrigued. But at the same time there was some trepidation, for I wasn’t exactly sure what pumpkins tasted like. I mean, I’ve eaten many a slice of pumpkin pie in my day, but I’ve never actually had a spoonful of that gooey substance I’ve seen pulled out of pumpkins on its own. Therefore I think that I’d best describe the “taste” of pumpkin by the spices used in pumpkin pie. So without further adieu, I closed my eyes and dove right in.
It was definitely full-bodied, but I didn't detect any spices at the front or any other flavours that I would distinguish as pumpkin. But as it finished the spices came through, leaving a tingling sensation on my tongue. I also found that it finished quite bitter.
It wasn't the whirlwind, flavour explosion I was anticipating, but it was a unique experience. At 5.5% abv and available in 650ml bottles, it's not a beer you're probably going to drink long into the night. But paired with a slice of pumpkin or apple pie, this pumpkin ale could be a friend you might want to invite over at least once a year.
GET INVOLVED!
usa
canada
world
LATEST UPDATES
LINKS
"Where does he get all those wonderful toys?"
ThinkGeek: launch rockets from your PC, send digital insults to drivers and own a REAL light sabre!
Guinness Product HQ
We've rounded up the greatest collection of Guinness gear on the planet! Shirts, hats, glasses, home bar products, giftware, tin signs... all official! Guinness Product HQ
