Pumpkin Ale - Clocktower Brewpub (Canada - Ontario - Ottawa)

Pumpkin Ale - Clocktower Brewpub (Canada - Ontario - Ottawa) 

Amber in a glass, clear without much of a head. The aroma is pleasantly pumpkin-ey with a mix of spices, very much like pumpkin pie.

The taste is along the same lines, a good balance of pumpkin spices and pumpkin flavour.  The beer is well carbonated but there is something about the mouthfeel that tells me this beer was made with lots of real pumpkin.

This is a very nice pumpkin ale and if you are in Ottawa it does get much more fresh or more local than this. However, a word of warning: they will serve it with a sprinkle of pumpkin-spice unless you ask them not to. I think the beer's flavour is already nicely balanced so I recommend against the garnish.

Update: I tried it with the pumpkin-spice garnish and it amps up the aroma a notch but doesn't affect the flavour very much past the first few drinks.

Dark and Handsome - Box Steam Brewery (United Kingdom)

Dark and Handsome - Box Steam Brewery (United Kingdom) 5.0%

Dark brown in a glass with a frothy, light-mocha coloured of foam. Earthy, chocolatey aroma with tones of black licorice, tobacco and leather.

The flavour is also earthy with light chocolate flavour, light leather and subtle licorice. There is the a faint hint of lemon that adds an interesting dimension to the flavour even though it is rather subtle. There is something there that I wouldn't have called black currant if it wasn't on the label but I do get a little of that too. Light mouthfeel and nice sort of toasty, faint tobacco, aftertaste. All in all, a very pleasant beer.

Highballer Pumpkin Ale - Grand River Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Cambridge)

Highballer Pumpkin Ale - Grand River Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Cambridge) 5.2%

Full gold with an orange hue in a glass. A spice forward aroma: cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and perhaps all-spice with a faint hint of pear, gourd and some toast, cereal and caramel.

Strongly nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves taste but with a distinctly pumpkin flavour as well. Sweet and quite heavily spiced although its flavouring, not including the malt flavours, can be broken down as 60% spices and 40% pumpkin. Highballer Pumpkin Ale has fairly low carbonation which makes for a smooth, watery mouthfeel even though there is a malty body with some toast and cereal notes.

Duvel Tripel Hop (2014) (Belgium)

 Duvel Tripel Hop (2014) (Belgium) 9.5%

Grassy, unripened mango, passionfruit hop laden aroma also with sweetness and a herbal hint typical of a less hoppy Tripel. A pale, cloudy gold in a glass with a frothy and resilient head of white foam.

Hoppy, bitter flavour at first, pine, sweet tangerine (got that from the Untappd description), something between the green (aka unripened) mango and passionfruit I got in the aroma but with a sweet herbal, floral finish of a Tripel. Interesting hops character and a flavour that is otherwise true to the Tripel style. Nice beer.