Beavertown Brewery-Stingy Jack Spiced Pumpkin Ale

I was very excited about this particular ale. I had seen it and another just like it at the usual place I buy my beers the week before, both were described as 'pumpkin ale'. I was advised, when I bought this one, that it was the least pumpkin-ey of the two, but the other was gone, so I went with it. I must say that I wasn't exactly disappointed by it, it's a lovely ale, it was just lacking a little...something.

Appearance-
A 330ml bottle is just about right for this ale. The label is a great piece of artwork-as you can see. It shows Stingy Jack himself and the devil. The story of this can be found on their website. The liquid itself is a medium dark amber ale, with the usual small head and clear quality. It seems to have very little carbonation, as I would expect (maybe wrongly) from an ale.

Nose-
There is a mild smell of ginger which is unmistakable. Otherwise all I can say about it is that it smells warm, like a warm ale. It is very subtle, though, it's not a strong smelling beer by any means.


Taste-
A mild bitterness is the first hit, followed closely by a sweet ginger flavour. It's like those little ginger sweets covered in chocolate, but without the chocolate...you know what I mean. Then you get a warmth from the cinnamon, but no taste of it, I'm assuming that's where it's coming from because I read it as an ingredient on the bottle! No flies on me huh? It also mentions nutmeg, which you can kind of get as a very slight after-taste, but you do have to use your imagination. I sound a bit like a broken record with this one, but this complexity really covers up the 7.2% ABV, but I must say I was quite light headed after it, nothing can disguise that I'm afraid.

Conclusion-
As I said I was excited when I bought this bottle, as I was expecting a strong pumpkin flavour. I must say it was sadly lacking in this, but  it was still an absolutely great ale. Full of lovely extra flavours, and nicely drinkable. Very reasonable too at only about £3.00 for the bottle. Take that Noel, see I like cheaper beers too!