Will Stevens' Pumpkin Ale

Beer Name: Will Stevens' Pumpkin Ale
Brewery: Wolaver's
ABV: 5.35%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

There are three things you should know going into this post. First, Wolaver's and Otter Creek are pretty much the same company. There is a backstory here, but you can look it up yourself, you lazy slacker. Second, I think the box these beers came in had the bottling date, but I accidentally destroyed the box. There's a story there too, but I'm not telling it because it's not very good. Finally, after a weekend of brewfest-ing, we stopped at two different breweries on the way home, including Otter Creek & Wolaver's. It was like that episode of The Simpsons where Homer and Marge went to the all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant and Homer got cut off from the food, so they drove around looking for another all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant, and when they couldn't find one Homer went fishing. That's how I am with beer. And yup, that was a ridiculously ungrammatical run-on sentence. Deal with that.

Will Stevens' Pumpkin Ale is a cloudy orange beer that poured with about a half inch of head that faded pretty quickly, leaving only a slight lacing pattern behind. The aroma, as expected, is mostly pumpkins and pumpkin pie spices like nutmeg. It's not an overpowering aroma though, and there are some other things going on there that my nose is not powerful enough to pick out. Probably some other spices.

This particular pumpkin ale is completely organic, as that's Wolaver's thing. They use Vermont pumpkins, so I am assuming that all the pumpkin flavor in here is the real deal, something that cannot be said for other pumpkin brews. The pumpkin flavor here is noticeable, but it's not ridiculously strong. This means that the beer actually tastes a like a beer instead of a liquid pumpkin pie. There is a medium level of carbonation, and a slight aftertaste of spices.

Final thought - I used to be a huge Pumpkinhead guy, but I think this beer has swung me away from the overdone pumpkinicity of Shipyard's beer back to world of more subtle flavors. However, I think there's a place for both beers in the fridge this fall. The bottom line is that this Will Stevens character has got the right idea, and his beer is quite tasty.

-Jon