Posted by SwillJockey on October 30th, 2008
Have you ever been cooking, worked busily on mixing up all of the ingredients, cooked the concoction, and then got all worked up preparing to taste your stupendous creation, only to find out you forgot a key ingredient?
Let’s see if I can guess their beer recipe correctly……
- 12 oz of well intentioned, but soon to be disappointing, water
- Unknown, but appropriate, Qty of Suitably Spooky Hops
- Unknown, but appropriate, Qty of tasty Zombie Yeasties who will feast blindly on the putrefying flesh of malted barley
- Unknown, but appropriate, Qty of spices needed, but will ultimately fail to, simulate the presence of pumpkin in an amber liquid
- Unknown, but Infinitesimal and quite possibly a world record holding too-small-to-measure, Qty of Pumpkin
- 1 Well drawn Headless Horsemen beer label
- 1 Ultimately disappointed 12oz brown bottle
- 1 Pretty Blue Beer Cap
Boil all of this stuff together long enough to make it tasty pumpkin-pie-like spicy, but not the least bit pumpkin-y. Toss this pre-congealed mass into the fermenter and let rot until some poor Headless Brewer determines that this stuff qualifies as beer.
Have I nailed the recipe?? I think I have.
To be honest, this stuff actually tastes OK, even if it is a bit on the spicy-sweet side. But in no way whatsoever does it taste the slightest bit pumpkin-y. I have been fu…..uhhhhhhhhhh….. screwed out of $1.59 for Pumpkin Ale with not so much as a pumpkin scented kiss for a thank you.
Pumpkin Head ale, you’re just a tease.
Posted by skylark on August 19th, 2007
My backlog of beer reviews is growing due to “work” and “family” stuff (I know, I know… I need to get my priorities straight). I’ve been trying lots of new brews as I’ve traveled around for my job. I had a Belgian Wheat from Blue Moon ($1 at Tsunami in Charleston, SC) with an orange wedge garnish that was cheap if not pleasing. I also had a Palmetto Pale Ale in while at Slightly North of Broad (or S.N.O.B.) as it is known) which wasn’t bad but may have been good because of the insanely good shrimp & grits I was having. While in Virginia, I went to the Icehouse Bar & Grill in Herndon. I had their New York Strip & Crab Cakes special with their own Ice House IPA. It wasn’t bad, not up to NW standards but it was good to see those East Coast boys trying.
A lot of people (especially those from the East Coast) get offended when you say something like, “The East Coast doesn’t know what real beer is.” They bring up something about Sam Adams “inventing” micro-brewing. Whatever. I’ll give you Sam Adams but that is pretty much the only contribution worth mentioning. They may have started it, but we Northwesters have taken it to the next level. Thats right, and I’ll kick the crap out of anyone who says otherwise.
Anywhoo, my last trip to NYC led me to believe that the other coast was completely devoid of good beer. I’ve heard that DC has some good beers too. Who knows, maybe 20 years from now some East Coast dude will be hatin’ on Northwest beer like its old news.
Posted by SwillJockey on August 3rd, 2007
We had another one of those impromptu bbq’s at work today. Fortune, or possibly misfortune, was smiling upon me as I noticed another Sam Adams Cherry Wheat was in the beer bin. I arrived to the bbq early, so the beer hadn’t had long to steep in the ice.
Now I see where some other people people got wildly different experiences from the Cherry Wheat than I did after my first taste of it. My first taste of the stuff was when it was VERY cold and it tasted wonderful. Today, it was just slightly cold and tasted of “cough syrup cherry flavoring”.
I was disappointed that the mere change in temp could affect this beer so drastically. I finished the beer, but the experience knocked a few points off of my previous rating.
I am thankful I wasn’t able to find this stuff sold by the case and didn’t end up saddled with lots of warmish beer flavored cough syrup.
Moral of the story: drink this shtuff cold or don’t drink it at all!
Posted by SwillJockey on July 18th, 2007
Usually I don’t buy beer to cook with first and drink second, but I did it with this one. It made OUTSTANDING grilled clams, only because the beer flavor disappeared when the clams opened up, but it’s not quite so nice to drink.
This pale ale is almost trying to be an IPA, but fails. There is a lingering aftertaste that reminds you of drinking and overly steeped cup of tea. I think the brewer left the teabag in this stuff way too long. If you like the wake up in the morning, cotton mouthy taste that this stuff leaves behind, by all means swill a case of this stuff.
It starts out tasting OK, but then quickly goes down hill with the hoppy, gritty, tea-baggy after taste. OK, no jokes about tea-bagging, but Frosty, you know who you are. 
I’ll not be buying any more. I might not even finish the two that are left in the fridge. I think I’ll let the kitchen sink choke them down.
