Happy Jack Pumpkin Ale - Fort Garry Brewing Company Ltd.

leaddog

Alberta (Canada)

3.83/5  rDev +2.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Appearance - Pours a root beer brown with a 1/2 finger width of bubbly head.

Smell - Oak, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spices, hint of pumpkin.

Taste - Hit straight off with the spice palate, followed up quickly with the oak flavours and hint of pumpkin.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate/high carbonation (maybe a little too much bubbles). Spicy finish.

Overall - A unique pumpkin ale by Fort Garry. Nice twist by aging this brew in oak barrels, which provides it with some nice woody, vanilla characteristics. Relies more on the spices than on the pumpkin, but otherwise enjoyable.

Serving type: bottle

11-10-2012 03:25:57 | More by leaddog

biboergosum

Alberta (Canada)

3.63/5  rDev -2.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

650ml bottle. A bit too late for Hallowe'en, but this won't wait for next year! Brewed with oak and spices, apparently, and nice to see more of the specialty offerings from this brewery come out this way.

This beer pours a clear, dark ruby-tinted amber hue, with three hefty fingers of densely foamy off-white head, which leaves a nice array of pock marked lace around the glass as it lazily sinks away.

It smells of sweet, slightly vegetal mashed pumpkin flesh, brown sugar, metallic cinnamon, mild clove, vanilla cookies, and a very soft oaken woodiness. The taste is a fair bit more woody, which avails itself to us right up front, in a kind of Home Depot manner, grainy 2x4s and all that, before the appearance of some tame caramel malt, muddled pumpkin puree, raw sugar, sweet vanilla, weakened cinnamon, softly spice clove and nutmeg, and kind of bitter leafy, earthy hops.

The bubbles are a wee bit peppy, but dial it back after a spell, the body a decent enough medium weight, and marginally smooth, a bit of veggie/hop astringency messing up its day. It finishes just off-dry, the sweetness of the initial pumpkin pie simulacrum now rather faded, leaving us a more garden-oriented gourd character, wallowing in some directionless edgy Thanksgiving spicing.

An interesting pumpkin ale, lots going on, but with a sense of disorientation, in that I don't know what that next glug may bring - vegetation, Mom's pies, hops, or some semblance of balance among them all. Drinkable, I suppose, though that perception seems to fade in concert with the remainder of my glass.

Serving type: bottle

11-13-2012 04:14:01 | More by biboergosum