Beer Review: Penn Pumpkin Roll Ale

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: Six percent

Appearance: This beer poured a dark and shiny shade of copper. The head was thin, white and a little fizzy. It also wasn't able to stick around for any amount of time. Not much was left after the head was gone. I was pretty much face-to-face with the copper body after this happened. Remarkably, there were still many beady trails of bubbles slowly rising upwards despite the lack of head above.

Smell: Amazingly, this smelled like a sweet pumpkin dessert. Big surprise, right? There was plenty of spicy cinnamon with few pumpkin undertones. This brew also featured a scent of prevalent creaminess. Had to be the lactose sugar that was used in the brewing process.

Taste: There was a little kiss of cinnamon on the front of my tongue along with some sweet caramel malt. The generous use of hops, as we usually get in Penn Brewery's offerings, took over from then on before the lactose sugar provided for a rich and creamy finish. The cream flavor also lingered in the aftertaste. The beady bubble trails made for a rich and interesting texture that was felt at the perfect time: when the hops and cream kicked in.

Overall Rating: 

I really anticipated this brew once I heard it was in the works. Still, I hated that it came out in the middle of July. I love when beer reminds me of food. I love holiday desserts. Penn knocked it out of the park with Nut Roll Ale last year and made another winner this time. The lactose sugar that was used makes the beer, in my opinion. The beer looked a tad weak to start, but in the end it wasn't really needed to provide that touch of creaminess some beers provide later in the drink.

Monday Rant: Frozen Pumpkins?

Into the stockpile it goes.

Somehow we all knew it was going to happen. After all, our favorite seasonal brews seem to appear earlier and earlier each year. I'm just going to warn you now that this is going to be the paragraph of callbacks. I certainly know I've harped for almost two years about the seasonals hitting shelves on an earlier basis. I recall writing something proposing some kind of craft beer paradox in which seasonal beers end up coming out so early that the release dates are months out of season (i.e. fall beers being released in the spring).

In that very post, I linked to a report of Penn Brewery planning on releasing one of the first pumpkin beers this summer. The month of the release? July. Well the week has come and gone. Amidst one of the hottest heat waves of the 2013 calendar year, Pumpkin Roll Ale has hit the shelves of our beer distributors.

I honestly don't know where a brewery can get pumpkins to have a pumpkin ale come out this early. Did they have a surplus of them last year and freeze the pumpkin meat? That's the only feasible thing I can come up with in my rage.

I told myself all week long that this past weekend was the one in which I wouldn't drink or buy any more beer. As if I didn't need more anyways. In great fear of this pumpkin beer being stripped from the shelves with ultra beer geek speed, I caved and got myself a case on Saturday. Oh, how shameful it is.

I wasn't thrilled at the thought of beers in a can. Slowly, but surely I've grown on that. Canned beer is easily stackable and takes up less room in a fridge. I think we're close to having all of us getting used to beer out of season. Maybe even to the point where we demand these beers year-round instead of this absurdity. One thing we are close to is a certainty. We now have pumpkin beer in July. Which brewer dares to be the first to do it in June? The clock is ticking.

Monday Rant: Seasonal Beer Paradox

I've delved into this subject way too many times while writing this series of posts. I understand the economical facets as to why seasonal beers keep coming out earlier each year. I also understand that distributors and wholesalers don't want to sit on the beer and risk having it go bad. If you're in the restaurant business, that's pretty much the same thing as just having food sitting in the freeze. Just money down the tubes.

I finally partook in the weekly festivities at Pipers Pub on Carson Street this past Thursday that the local online beer community usually attends. While meeting and talking with some of the people there this subject came up once again.



According to a post via Beer Pulse, Penn Brewery is to release its new Pumpkin Roll Ale sometime this July. Is this a sign that most of the other pumpkin beers will be out at some point in July as well? Also, will this pertain to the other times of the year that seasonal brews appear?

If I remember correctly, most of the fall beers were out before my birthday in August last year. Is it just me or are we starting to see a trend of beers coming out earlier and earlier each year? You can only have an earlier release each year so many times before you get to the point when the beer hits the market a season (or maybe two) before it's actually intended.

It just boggles me to think about it. Think of it as the earth's magnetic poles slowly reversing. The more you know.