I realise it’s May. I realise that pumpkin ales are generally consumed in the fall. But I’ve gotta tell you this story. I was at a local beer store, talking to the proprietress. She spoke of this special pumpkin ale. According to her, Seattle’s Elysian Brewing makes a pumpkin ale in the fall, but they make a better Imperial Pumpkin Ale that they don’t normally bottle. However, they bottled some and she got the hook up. Enter the Great Pumpkin. This is a fantastic beer. My normal complaint of pumpkin ales (aside from the fact that you can only get them in the fall), is that they aren’t spicy enough. You take a swig, after a few moments you find the meager spices. In my (not-so) humble opinion, pumpkin ales should be bold, big, and spicy. There should be no question as to what you are drinking. In that category, this beer delivers. You can taste the allspice and cloves while the beer is still in your mouth. Post-swallow notes are honey-sweet. There is a very mild hop taste, probably Tettanger, that is smooth and doesn’t take away from the spicy pumpkin-y goodness. If you look closely in the picture, you can see that there are floaties in this beer. This is a good thing. My guess, they are pumpkin and spice bits. Living up to its Imperial moniker, this bad boy is 7.7% alcohol. Which is really just icing on the cake, err, Cool Whip on the pumpkin pie. (As a noteworthy sidenote, the second beer that I made was a pumpkin ale that was pretty similar to this one. It called for Tettanger hops, which I didn’t have, but that explains my guess at the hops in this one. So for those of you that can’t get this particular beer, you can also not sample the homebrew pumpkin ale I made – but you can have the recipe.)

Specs:
22 oz bottle
7.7% ABV