Pumpkinsanity Review: Michigan Brewing Screamin’ Pumpkin Spiced Ale

In Beer Reviews by The Guys

Michigan Brewing Screamin’ Pumpkin Spiced Ale
Pumpkin Ale, 6% ABV

Sayeth the Guys:

Karl: The MBC was probably the biggest miss of the night, unfortunately.  When we opened it, it certainly smelled pumpkinny…but that’s about as close as it got.  The actual taste was closer to someone just smashing some pumpkins near a brew kettle and some pumpkin shrapnel (pumpnel?) happened to get in.

Bland and water, there’s a bit of cinnamon on the front end and a sparkle of carbonation on the back end.  Beyond that, just a bit of lingering funk and water, water, water.  I was a little confounded – there really wasn’t that much else in there.  This beer might be able to convince itself that it’s a pumpkin, but I would recommend next year’s brew adjust its name to “Mumbled Pumpkin.”

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Ryan: I feel kind of bad, Karl, it seems I got the bulk of the flavor in my glass.  Now that doesn’t mean that this beer was “Screamin'” with taste but I did pick up some pumpkin pie and Fall related spices here.

All of the expected spices can be found on the nose; a bit of pumpkin pie filling and a little brown sugar.  Same goes for the palate.  You get some graham cracker, a little pumpkin, maybe some vanilla and some nutmeg.  A splash of cinnamon finishes things off.  I think what did it for me, or didn’t do it in this case, was the carbonation.  It was highly carbonated and very sparkly but I think it was too much.  I felt like there was more too this beer and more flavor to be had, but all of the bubbles dancing in my mouth kept me from really tasting this beer.

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And, you’re right Karl, this was pretty watery.  This had potential.  It seemed like all the right spices were there, but there just wasn’t enough body to this beer to bring them out and the carbonation muted everything else.

For whatever it is worth it did pair fairly well with butternut squash soup.

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Written by many, compiled by one, this is a collaborative post with contributions from at least two writers at Guys Drinking Beer.

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