Phillips Brewing Company Crooked Tooth Pumpkin Ale Spice / Herb / Vegetable at 5% ABV (C$7.49 at South Trail Calgary Co-Op, 650 ml, no bottle date or best before)
Appearance: clear medium amber, one fat finger of creamy light tan head diminishing gradually to a thin cap, patchy lacing. (3/5) Aroma: vegetal pumpkin and spices, light sweet malt, faint grassy and earthy hops. (7/10) Taste: moderate sweet, mild bitter, light tart. (8/10) Medium body, moderate carbonation, short duration finish. (4/5)
My brother recently pointed out to me that my reviews of pumpkin beers have a tendency to be apologetic in tone: that they boil down to “For a beer I don’t like, it’s not bad.” And there’s probably a lot of truth to that, but the fact is I kind of take what I can get when it comes to trying new stuff. Not only that, but Phillips (and to a lesser extent, Russell) tend to be brewers for whom my reviews tend to be apologetic – but that comes, not from disliking them, but thinking they have the potential of being so much better. (So this is pretty much a perfect match, right?) Anyway, this year I ended up with about six different pumpkin beers to try, but there was a bit of a method to my madness: I tried to do them in roughly the order I expected to enjoy them, saving the best for last. And dang, if it doesn’t seem like I nailed it. This is the penultimate (I have its big Crookeder brother left to go) and the scores thus far have gone 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, and 7.0. For this one, I’m going out on a limb a little on the scoring, but ultimately it’s a beer I would actually drink again – and for a pumpkin beer, that’s saying something! It’s not that it doesn’t taste or smell like pumpkin, because it does, but rather that the mildness feels both balanced and deliberate, like a half strength pumpkin pie, and it doesn’t lose sight of the fact that it’s also supposed to smell and taste like beer. This one really is worth trying on its own merits. (15/20)
7.5/10 #ryansbooze ryansbooze.com
