And that, hitherto, has been the sum total of my experience of the Shipyard Brewing Company of Portland, Maine. Until I chanced across their Pumpkinhead beer which has just cropped up in Dublin. I'm guessing from the subtle clues on the label that it's a beer made with pumpkins, though the descriptive small-print says merely it is a "Malt Beverage with natural Flovor added". And you know how much I love Flovor.There's a whiff of spiced fakery from the beer as it pours, like an apfelstrudel air freshener. It's a lurid, limpid, Irn Bru orange and lacks any significant foam topping. Maybe it's just because it looks like an alcopop that it tastes like an alcopop; or maybe it's the watery texture, the overactive fizz and the unpleasantly sickly cinnamon and fruit (pumpkin, I guess, though it resembles apple more) flavour. This is a beer you might put up with once, because it's Halloween, and you're already three t-shirts to the wind, but there's no excuse on Easter Monday. No excuse at all.
it's about 7 months old by my guess, I don't think it's really fair to review a beer that far past prime. While you aren't far from the truth about it, it's still a better beer fresh, in say September when it's released too early as a fall seasonal.
ReplyDeleteIf it's fair to put it on a shelf with a price tag, it's fair to review it.
DeleteFair enough, but it really only slight resemblance to the beer as it was brewed, or intended by the brewer. I value reviews of fresh beers, when properly handled. The condition of the beer is questionable at best, your choice to buy it, is also questionable. :) In this case you are faulting a brewery for their beer still being on a stores shelves, not something they have much control over. Though, they could very well put a best by date on it.
DeleteFrom the other commenters it seems you're in a minority when comparing my tasting notes to how a fresh bottle tastes.
DeleteThe beer was inside the best-before date that the brewery chose to print on it, and really the only thing about the brewery I have criticised is its spelling. I mean, they weren't to know I was a normal-sized human being when they sent me that t-shirt, so I don't begrudge them.
I've had it fresh quite a few times. If it tasted any different from the way it was described here, I certainly didn't notice.
ReplyDeleteHad a bottle of this two weeks ago, agree with pretty much everything you have said there. Poor beer
ReplyDelete"There's a whiff of spiced fakery from the beer"
ReplyDeleteI didn't think it would get better than that but I was wrong (apfelstrudel air freshener)....
Brilliant description.
I take great offense at this entire post, which is clearly a thin-veiled assault on the culture of the United States of America. First our fashion sense (I'm wearing that "style of hat" right now), then our median girth, and finally our autumnal beer. An outrage!
ReplyDeleteI kid. But it does seem like you've been hit with a lot of America there. First off, don't blame Shipyard: pumpkin ales suck. They're irredeemable, in my view. What you described is what everyone expects, and shockingly, what quite a lot of breweries brew. It probably is worse for the wear, but my guess is not much.
Too bad you can't get any Geary's there--also from Maine, also from the Ringwood system imported to New England via Alan Pugsley, founder of Shipyard. Pugsley like a diacetyl smack in his beers--the Ringwood yeast will give it, in spades--but David Geary gets greater depth and character from it. His pale and porter are among the best beers brewed. Shipyard is a step below, but it's kind of cool you have their gear.
Good lord, what typos. Please ignore them.
DeleteYeah, my blog is basically end-to-end racism, but most people are polite enough to let it go, or too embarrassed to say anything.
DeleteI beg to differ on pumpkin ales, however. I've not had many American ones, but the likes of Wychwood Pumpking is (IMO) an example of the same thing being done well.
There's very slight variation in American versions, but what you describe sounds totally typical. I'd like to try a UK example.
DeleteWhat amazes me is this stuff flies off the shelves here in New England when it comes out late Summer/Autumn. They can't brew enough of it. Pubs will serve it on tap and dip the rim of the glass into a bowl of sugar and cinnamon. Women goes nuts over it. My wife hordes it in the basement for fear the stores will run out. To me it's just another bland, Ringwood beer with some pumpkins spices dropped in.
ReplyDelete