Out of the Bottle: Power-Outage Pumpkin

My Power-Outage Pumpkin, that was literally made during a power-outage, is ready to go for Halloween.

The beer smells fabulous coming out of the bottle. My extra dose of pumpkin must have done its job, because that's the first aroma you get. Letting the nose linger a bit brings forth the full pumpkin pie effect I was shooting for. The beer is lightly sweet, bready and has a good compliment of pie spice to go with all that pumpkin. Yay me!

Things change a little bit in the mouth.

Baked pumpkin is way out front, without being overpowering. The bitterness is just enough and doesn't add any flavor to the mix. Pie spices also help balance the sweeter flavors of brown sugar and caramel. The pie spices linger through the long and somewhat dry finish.

I've definitely decided that I'm not a big clove or allspice fan. Even though I dialed back both significantly this year, their flavor still doesn't work for my palate. Thankfully, the others who have tried this beer disagree with me. Next year, I may dial them back even more, or eliminate them altogether. However, I have to remember that I'm not just brewing for me. If my friends and family like it, either I must have done something right, or they're just humoring me.

The beer's clarity is very good (I should have picked a different glass to showcase it better). The rocky head has great retention and leaves quite a bit of chunky lace behind.

For next year, I think I'll either dump, or reduce the allspice and clove even further. Other than that, I think this one is a keeper.

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