Pumking (Southern Tier)

I continued my pumpkin beer journey with this Southern Tier Imperial Pumpkin brew. This brew is an odd one. It's hard to find in some areas and easy to buy in bulk in others. Even at the same shop they had a limit of one per person, yet a week later you could buy a case. I was lucky that this area got a surprise push of inventory; I was able to secure it for my beer class after being told that the supplier was out. I had high hopes for this one. Years of good reviews added to them. While Southern Tier seems hit or miss for me, I felt that they might be able to do pumpkin right.

For some reason I felt that this needed a fancy goblet (pictured). I have not used this glassware since the May tasting I got them in, but why not!

**Note: I'm not nuts, I noticed after that the bottle says to use a goblet.**

General Thoughts
Look and Smell: I could smell this brew across the table. It was a light pour. This orange brew had a white head with a thin ring that hands around. I could smell fresh pumpkin, brown sugar, ginger snap, and a toastiness. The smell alone showcased what I thought was essential to a pumpkin beer I'd like.

Taste: The fresh pumpkin flavor was not hard to pick up. It was good pumpkin, not overly-sweet pumpkin flavor. Not what you'd think pumpkin should taste like in a pie. It was earthy and sweet pumpkin. It had some serious, even imperial, spice. I got cinnamon flavor, than a toastiness. (No cereal jokes please.) It was dry. It was light with a creaminess to it (full-bodied). It left a toasted aftertaste. If you wanted to say this was a pie-type beer, I'd buy that if it was a pumpkin pie with a graham cracker crust. I really liked this beer. I think it's a standalone beer though. I think it would overpower anything you tried to eat with it. Definitely not an every-day beer, but worth having once a year to welcome fall.

From the Southern Tier site:
All Hallow’s Eve is a time of the year when spirits can make contact with the physical world, and when magic is most potent. It is thought that we harness this magic to brew our powerful pumpkin ale. Not so, but it is with great respect to the magic of their trade that our brewers produce this fine beer. Take a whiff of this complex ale and your journey has just begun. At first sip, a magical spell will bewitch your taste buds, yet another victim enraptured by the Pumking.