Pumpkin Beer Four, A Middling Pour

Beer Four on my way to pumpkin-geddon is Howe Sound Brewing Co.’s Pumpkin Eater Imperial Pumpkin Ale. This is another pumpkin ale I have tried in previous years so I thought I knew what to expect when I poured myself a glass…

 

Pumpkin Eater pours reddish orange with nice clarity and some carbonation. There is a decent amount of cream coloured head and the head retention is quite good. On the nose you get the pumpkin pie spices like cinnamon and cardamon. Flavour wise the spices continue and there is even a bit of a nutty taste. It is quite light bodied for an Imperial Ale and I expected there to be more depth and complexity to this beer. The biggest issue for me was the amount of anise, which really overpowered the other spices and detracted from my perception of this being a pumpkin beer.

 

 

Howe Sound’s Pumpkin Eater had been the gold standard (for some) in year’s past but I think they fell off the pedestal a bit with this one.

Overall I would give this year’s Pumpkin Eater five candy corns out of a possible ten.