smokinghole's Pumpkin Ale
Aroma - Fruity esters hit first backed by thick, sweet malt. Then the spices come through, gentle but noticeable.
Appearance - Upon opening I knew I would have to pour carefully and I still had trouble getting it into the glass. Poured with a voluminous eggshell foam with a very fluffy texture. Color of the beer is a really nice dark amber, with a slight haze and countless streams of bubbles rising through.
Flavor - Very unique flavor. Sweet and slightly tart, with a strong fruity character. The fruity tartness continues into the finish where grainy, malt and dark fruit (raisins, underripe plums) linger. The spices are there in the aftertaste too, with no single spice sticking out and more of a general pumpkin spice character dominating. Bitterness is moderate, with a slightly tingling flavor mid to back palate.
Mouthfeel - Moderate body and high carbonation work well for this beer. I was a bit worried about the carbonation when I opened the bottle and when I was pouring, but it doesn't come off as harsh in this beer. The mouthfeel is nicely round and a bit slick. Slightly warming from the alchol.
Overall - Not what I was expecting, but very good. This is a very fruity beer! The fruity esters and dark fruit malt character really dominate this beer for me. The spices end up playing second fiddle. I'm not really pulling out any pumpkin character in the beer apart from maybe the bit of roundness and slickness in the mouthfeel. I wouldn't guess that this beer was the 9.something % you said. It hides it very well. Thanks for sending it!
That beer was somewhat of an accident. I meant to split the batch between WLP510 and WLP028. Well my 510 didn't take off so I ended up using ECY13 instead. Then the WLP028 got replaced by a tube of WLP099 that I grabbed by accident. I didn't realize until after I pitched the starters. That damn 099 has done this to me before where I thought it was done fermenting, but then it knocked a couple more points off in the bottle. I think it'd be better with lower carbonation but whatever I guess I gots to deal. Sure I could vent the bottles for a while to decrease the pressure. I have plenty of caps and half of it in fliptops.
The beer has big time flavor difference between the two yeasts though. There are slight flavor similarities but different aspects are amplified in one vs the other. I thought the Belgian version chewed up the spicing flavor which was more noticeable in the 099 version.