Central City Brewers + Distillers Red Racer Spiced Pumpkin Ale Spice / Herb / Vegetable at 5% ABV (C$6.11 at NLC Stavanger, 650 ml, no bottle date or best before)
Appearance: clear medium amber, short light tan head diminishing rapidly to a thin ring, no lacing. (3/5) Aroma: pumpkin, spices, maple sweet. (6/10) Taste: moderate-high sweet, mild bitter, mild peppery spice. (5/10) Medium body tending a little to the watery, lively to moderate carbonation, off-dry mildly spicy finish. (3/5)
Generally, pumpkin beers are to beer as Pumpkin Spice Latté is to coffee – which is to say, if it’s your particular secret shame, perhaps you enjoy it more than is seemly, but otherwise you quite rightly treat it as the abortion it is. Given that this is in fact my attitude, one might wonder at the fact that this is the first of no fewer than six pumpkin beers currently residing in my cellar. Rest assured, however, that there is a very simple explanation: you see, I’m an idiot. With that bookkeeping out of the way, I can report that this is a fairly “pumpkin-y” example of the style (that is, the flavours include not just spices, but actual pumpkin), not too sweet, and moderately good-looking though lacking any kind of head or lacing – and further to the down side, it could stand to be spicier, with more body. Ultimately pretty boring, though not actually offensive. (11/20)
5.5/10 #ryansbooze ryansbooze.com
