Miasmatic Review

Ichabod

Since it is the Halloween season I figured I should do some Halloween themed beers. I’m starting going with a beer from one of my favorite Microbreweries, New Holland Brewing Company. They have a seasonal ale brewed with pumpkin they named Ichabod.

They used a standard 12 oz brown bottle. The body label has a picture of the headless horseman in the middle of an oval. The name of the beer is in old style white script lettering below the horse. On the neck label they have the name of the beer again with a Jack-o-lantern on it.

Into a bar style pint glass this ale poured a hazy copper color. Light passes through, but there is a lot of sediment that prevents you from being able to see through properly. There was a very thin white head that quickly faded to nothing leaving only a ring around the edge of the glass. There is some lacing, but not a lot.

A strong scent combination of pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg compliment the malt backbone. It reminded me a bit of pumpkin bread. On the first taste one gets a strong spice and caramel malt flavoring. It is followed by a light pumpkin taste. It almost tasted like I was eating pumpkin bread while drinking a beer.

There is a nice medium body to it that gives a slight coating to the mouth. It is slightly high in carbonation, a bit more than I generally enjoy.

This beer pleasantly surprised me. Normally I don’t like pumpkin beers as they have an over powering pumpkin taste to it that really kills the flavor. This one has more of a pumpkin accent that really enhances the flavor. I’m still not overly fond of fruit beers, but this one was pretty good. I give it a 4.5 out of 10.