I’ve been excited for the Dogfish Head Punkin Ale since last year, considering it’s the first time I’m trying it. Fall seasonals have to be one of my top three styles of choice, that is, if you’ll let me group Pumpkin Ales and Märzen/Oktoberfest into one category. Dogfish’s take on the Pumpkin Ale style puts theirs at a higher 7% ABV for the style.

For this, I grabbed my “hand-made” Dogfish Head signature glass and poured this crystal clear, burnt sienna brew into it. Along with it’s amazing clarity and Fall color, were some copper-orange tints and a decent off-white head. Finishing the visuals were a drastic rush of carbonation bubbles to the surface, long after the pour. The head settled into a creamy thin coating atop the body of beer.

If you love pumpkin pie, you’ll die for the nose on this. Freshly baked pumpkin pie and all the spices and ingredients along with it dominate. Dogfish Head label the Punkin Ale with: “A full-bodied brown ale brewed with real pumpkin, brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon & nutmeg.” And quite literally, they couldn’t have more accurately described it. All these spices and flavors come through while not being overpowering but remaining incredibly intoxicating.

The initial sip of is loaded with nutmeg up-front. It’s very noticeable and coats your mouth due to the great full body of the beer and the displacement of the carbonation bubbles. The cinnamon follows the nutmeg and each concurrent sip has the cinnamon overtaking the nutmeg up-front. The pumpkin is mild but is present towards the end palate, as well as in the linger. Though, I noticed as the beer warmed, the pumpkin flavor really shined throughout the sip.

Considering this is my first time having the Punkin Ale from Dogfish, the bar has been set fairly high this season. Again, this nose is seriously hard to let go, it’s so delicious and you could literally sniff this for hours. The flavor profile is incredibly balanced and Dogfish tackled a difficult issue of flavor distribution. They slowly displaced the flavors throughout the mouthful and didn’t pack them all in the initial sip. For this reason, this is a seriously balanced, delicious and outstanding Pumpkin Ale.

Rating

90
out of 100