Style: Pumpkin Ale
5.7% ABV
The overall Blue Moon logo with the moon and the pumpkins present in the label are an interesting artistic style that is aesthetically pleasing. It definitely feels washed out and mass-produced, but it looks nice. My complaint with the bottle, as always, lies with the over abundance of boring text on the side of the label. The font for the beer name and all is actually a cool font, I just hate everything around it. The next is also nearly entirely ripped from the Sam Adams design, with a nice light description of the beer. Overall this is a mediocre bottle that might be worth peeling off the label to keep in a collection.
The beer pours a water-clear amber orange with a lot of bubbles racing to the top, and some chillaxing on the side of the glass. There was a nice cream head after the pour but it dissipates quickly leaving a light fringe of lacy cream white bubbles, but a swirl of the glass does rejuvenate a fourth of a finger of head. The beer smells light pumpkin aroma, underlying with nutmeg cinnamon, and cloves. There is a ghost of a wheat malt spice and some roasted malts that oddly wet the nose at the back of the smell, but other than that this beer is all spice and pumpkin, and perhaps a touch of alcohol that burns at the nose, which I find odd for such a low alcohol beer. The beer tastes bitterly fruity with pumpkin and the flavor eating bite of the spices which leave a slight spice-burn tingle on the tongue. The taste is much like the smell in terms of spices, and there are no real surprises hear. The pumpkin tastes a little unripe on the tongue and leaves a bitter bite on the aftertaste that I associate with unripe fruit. Very faint hints of spice are found from the wheat, and a weird syrupy sweet flavor actually clotted my tongue for a brief moment. The mouthfeel is thin and smooth, with only a faint bite from the carbonation, and a dry-yet-damp feeling is left after the beer leaves. My mouth is pretty damp with saliva but my tongue feels a little dry and sandpapery. Overall this is a mediocre pumpkin beer. It is definitely a pumpkin beer, which is good, but it carries some of the hallmarks of mass-brewing, and suffers for it. The beer could have a better mouthfeel and a riper feel to the pumpkin flavor. Worth a sip if you like pumpkin beer, but I would pick-up a Shipyard Pumpkinhead over this if I was looking for an easily accessible pumpkin beer to try.
3.08/5
Beer in my Belly 