Pumpkins on Christmas

Yeah, maybe having Pumpkin beers on Christmas seems odd, but we were having a pretty faithful Thanksgiving meal so why not Pumpkins? Besides, the two I decided to open aren't your average pumpkin beers anyway

The first I opened was Midnight Sun Treat, an imperial porter made with cocoa nibs, pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.

I had this once before at like 6 in the morning at the Cuvee de Castleton release and honestly wasn't impressed. However, it turns out that drinking in like 40 degree weather at 6am isn't the best way to taste things. Shocking I know. Nice cinnamon and roast nose. Slightly thin body but it's a porter not a stout and it's not too thin for the style in my opinion. First sip was nice with chocolate being the first and foremost flavor. Some subtleties come from the cinnamon, nutmeg and clove but they enhanced the flavor rather than overpowering it. This was quite good and way better than the first time.

After that I opened Burly Gourd from the Bruery, a milk stout made with pumpkin, vanilla and some other stuff and aged on oak chips (update: aged on cedar actually) or something.

Cinnamon and vanilla nose. Spices started it out but there was something else underneath that I couldn't figure out. It was sort of a harsh spiciness, possibly from the oak. I got some milky notes from the lactose and it had a nice creamy body but there was an astringency that started becoming mildly unpleasant as I drank more. It didn't make it easy to drink that's for sure. I had high hopes for this and it really didn't live up to them. I'll admit it would probably appeal to some just not to me.

So that was my pumpkin night to go with our Thanksgiving dinner. One really good one and one that didn't really do it for me. Well, can't win 'em all. I was happy that the Treat turned out to be delicious after having a bad experience with it and I'd definitely drink that again if I could. Chocolate and pumpkin seems to be a really good combination that's for sure.