This bottle of Honey Pumpkin Ale was bottled as a baseline scenario, the starting point without adjuncts, additives, odd elements (those bottled with Kelp) and experimental flavaz, the ordinary least squares, lowest aggregate, the path of least resistance, and most regression.
This was the head cornerstone of this batch, made with fresh pumpkin, cored, carved, peeled, roasted and fermented right along with the malts, as if it were grown in the next field over.
It turned out well and suggests good things for the whole batch and any of the odd, offbeat, racy, radical permutations, starting with a nice, if loose froth, and mildly hoppy aromas lingering about the nose, like a summer hobo, outside the pub, soaked in whiskey, next to the single ladies in their perfumes, emitting smoke along with his borrowed cigarette, giving you that heads up that sparks a very slight adrenal spike before you walk in: "who knows, this could be a dangerous place".
But once your in the glass, and this ale floods your mouth and gums you're fine, you're going to be fine, and you know it because it has balanced, full malty mouth feel to complement the dark brown hue, like the light bouncing off the wood paneling or well worked and worn out wood fixtures on the bar top and rail. It's fine, full bodied, familiar and flavorful.
Makes me seriously think, if and probs nothing else, the fresh roasted pumpkin may impart a tannic quality that enriches the mouth feel beyond the grains and any Belgian candy canes. And it makes me glad I added the extra honey.
Here's my prediction-- this Baseline Honey Pumpkin Ale Scenario it a winner, and the variations that I've bottled from it will be one BLITZ after another, stunt after stunt, sack after sack of grain in a Super BOIL a fermented out just in time Superbowl. That's what my little cabron bubbles have been doing while your little digital guys with the big hearts have been running their routes with Flacco, king of the angry birds.
At 5% ABV, this Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier was very tasty, if "sweet", as the Millennial bar tender told some dude asking because they ran out of all the other American White beers.
But it was more complicated that merely sweet. It had way more citrus, orange flavor than any banana notes, making it very tame Hefe by comparison to many of the similar Germans you'll find in say, the Chicago market. It was a good, light pils-ish drinking beer, particularly given the top heavy menu of high ABV choices at Cask Republic.
The head was also, meh compared to many other German Hefes out there. It turned flat like American beers end up inside of 30 second.
It kind of made me think it was flavored with the same orange flavoring they put in my seltzer, but a good tonic after a Victory Hop Devil or 2.
Awesome everything, with lip smacking hopftertaste. Done & done. Having said that, I can't tell if it's actual hops or fun with flavorings. If you've had it in the bottle, it's worth the trip to Cask Republic if you're swinging past New Haven, CT on the 95.
Pumkin Honey Coco Stout was made with a pinch of soured stout from last year (maybe 2%), and a pinch of that coco powder I bought from Peru via Amazon. And it's ended up mildly hoppy, creamy, with more chocolate notes than I expected given the tiny pinch I placed in bottle-- very tasty all in all, and maybe even, as the kids, chefs and bartenders can't seem to ever stop saying: both "delicious" and maybe even completely "amazing".
"Delicious, amazing, delicious, amazing, delicious, amazing". Is anyone else hearing the buzz of these words around their heads these days? You know what happens when everything becomes "amazing"? In the 80's, I recall everyone was saying everything was "wonderful". It was like everyone was quoting Willie Wonka. I was glad to see "wonderful" go, but the "amazing" might be worse. Okay, okay, sidetracked much?
Anyway, I know what you're thinking-- Pumpkin with Chocolate!? Come-on. Really? Syria? WTF? Sounds Benghazi, right? Yes, but the Pumpkin flavor here was not overwhelming or pronounced enough to really piss in the punch bowl. It was more in the spirit of drizzling chocolate on the whipped cream atop a slice of pumpkin pie, or coco, flavored with ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. After all, pumpkin beer is more often than not the pumpkin pie spices one uses in the beer. And the adjuncts were balanced well with the coco here.
I've made Pumpkin wine and hard cider with roasted fresh and canned pumpkin to see what kind of flavor I could pull out of this popular, glamorous gourd, only to find that when the sugars are fermented out, pumpkin imparts very little flavor of its own, without the Pumpkin Pie spices, as many experienced homies have testified on the home brew message boards. However, what it does impart is tannic mouth feel, like wine, which put it on part with a nice, light White table wine. It makes pumpkin well worth a plus one to many fermentation party you're having.
Surprisingly balanced: a touch of cranberry flavored Kombucha (2%) imparted a very mild sour, with the balanced creamy taste of the underlying Honey Pumpkin ale.
By adding a little Notthingham yeast in the bottle to finish off the adjunct sugars we added to make the suds, we super charged the froth on the pour. It was like a little slice of Belgium in the man cave, as Teddy licked himself.
Calm down, Teddy's the dog.
Ommegang's "All Proceeds Go To Charity" Pils, 5.9% ABV, beautiful color, nice froth, and clean well balance flavor, like a watery lite Milla with mad flavaz. I think it's Hurricane Sandy related.
Beer Authority sits next to the Port Authority in NY, and it's got 90 taps, and a great variety of bottled beers too. It's on the second floor, like Lucca, so there's a climb to and from, but there's plenty of seating, and nice array of flat panels.
Great beer selection, big, epic location off Times Square. Good times.
