Miasmatic Review

Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale

Bruce of Back to the Batcave donated tonight’s beer for review. He actually gave this to me about a month ago, and I’m just now getting around to reviewing it. Tonight beer is America’s Original Pumpkin Ale by Buffalo Bill’s Brewery in Haywood, CA.

It came in a 12 oz shortneck brown bottle; the label has a black background with a picture of a pumpkin on it. The name of the beer is at the top and the name of the brewery is at the bottom. Under the name of the beer it claims, “Ale brewed with real pumpkin and spices.”

There is an orangish/amber color to the beer. It’s clear and light passes through easily. I was unable to detect any haziness or cloudiness at all. There was no head when poured into a glass. As it poured it fizzed like a carbonated soft drink, but nothing lasted more than a couple of seconds. Almost as soon as I finished pouring the beer the head disappeared to nothing. As it sat in the glass it almost looked like I had a glass of some kind of dark apple juice instead of beer.

The smell is an overpowering combination of pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg. It gives the beer a scent of pumpkin pie or my friend’s wife’s pumpkin squares. I was unable to detect the scent of malts, hops or any normal beer scents. The taste is almost like the scent. A very strong combination of pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg. There is a strange slightly bitter aftertaste.

It is a light bodied beer that is kind of watery. It’s very easy to drink. There is no coating to the mouth or throat, which helps the aftertaste to fade even quicker.

I really did not find this beer to be very pleasurable to drink. The flavor, while fine if eating a desert, is not really something I look for in a beer. It was overly sweet and really not much of any beer taste. Seriously, it was almost like drinking a pumpkin pie smoothie. Yet, it didn't taste too bad with Apple Cider Doughnuts. Honestly I think Bruce bought this for me because he’s on a personal quest to find the nastiest, most horrible beer for me to drink. He must take some kind of sadistic pleasure in having me drink some really god awful swill. Heck, this isn’t even the first pumpkin ale he’s given me to review. With that being said, I’m sure it takes no one by surprise that I’m giving this beer a rating of 2 out of 10.