Nothing like drinking a pumpkin ale while you carve a pumpkin!

Pumpkin ales are always popular this time of year. This fall I tried a couple I hadn't before. The first was Albuquerque's own Chama River Brewing Co's pumpkin ale. Now that I write this I can't remember what it was called, but I do remember that it was
delicious. I also tried a pumpkin ale from Buffalo Bill's brewery. I saw a six pack of it when I was browsing Kelly's seasonal selection. It was ok, but not the best I've had.


Chama River Brewing Co - Pumpkin Ale -

As to be expected it poured a medium mahogany color, I had it out of a glass at the Chama River restaurant. Definitely hints of pumpkin in the smell, with a little bit of spice. When I got to tasting it this characteristic stayed true. The pumpkin and spice taste is kind of subdued, but not in a bad way. Very pleasant and reasonably easy on the mouth, not too carbonated but not too smooth. Overall I'd give this one a B+/A-.


Buffalo Bills Brewery Pumpkin Ale - I drank this one out of a bottle. Had the same smell characteristics as the Chama River brew. The first thing I noticed about this pumpkin ale was that the mouthfeel was very, very light. Almost frothy. That caught me off guard a little bit. There was only a light amount of pumpkin and spice taste, barely noticeable toward the end of a swallow. I'll give Buffalo Bills Pumpkin Ale a C+ and write it down as one I'll have to try again. Kind of disappointing to have so little taste for such a specialized brew.

Sam Adams Coastal Wheat

When I was browsing the grocery store the other day I came upon a six pack of Coastal Wheat. I had seen it in this summers Sam Adams variety packs but had not tasted it yet. The beer is so new, in fact, that the Sam Adams website has yet to add it.

Thinking that this beer sounded kind of good I picked up a six pack and took it home. Unfortunately I was sorely disappointed!

I drank it out of a glass. It pours like a wheat beer would, orange and cloudy. The first thing I noticed when smelling the beer was the lemon scent. Very dominant. Besides that I picked up some other fragrant notes. But the lemon stood out. The taste confirms the dominance of the lemon in the beer. The lemon is everpresent and really strong. I guess if you love lemons then maybe you will favor this beer. The lemon tastes like it was poured out of a bottle of lemon flavoring, it has a distinct "artificialness" to it, and this negatively affects the taste for me. As for the mouthfeel, it was also par with most wheat beers. It may have been heavy on the carbonation, but otherwise is close to your run of the mill wheats.

I always like to suggest that people try a beer for themselves, and this is still the case here. But I would not recommend it.

The perfect pour!

All beer drinkers should know how to pour a beer. If you pour it wrong the results are pretty palpable. A bad pour can result in a loss of just about every characteristic in a beer. From experience, a bad pour flattens the beer and seems to .. thin I guess is the word I'm looking for .. the taste. Overall a bad pour basically wastes the beer.

For a while there were some commercials, Bud Light I think, where they said to pour straight down the middle. I tried this and again, it pretty much turned the mouthfeel of the beer into water and whatever taste Bud Light has was lost.

So, without anymore delay, the perfect pour, courtesy of BeerAdvocate!