As a beer geek (you can translate that to beer snob if you like) I have taken to the idea that I have never met a beer style I do not enjoy.  Some beer drinkers can’t stand Belgian ales, I absolutely live for them, even the ones that supposedly have aromas and character akin to those of a barn (they don’t by the way in my opinion).  Others find various lagers to be too pedestrian or lacking imagination in the sea of choice from the craft beer explosion that has taken permanent root in the United States and beyond.  My personal achilles heel?  Ales brewed with pumpkin and spices.  I just can’t stand them, no matter how many I try, it always comes off as a mistaken mix of holiday dessert and beer in a blender.  That is until I was asked by Guy LeCharles Gonzalez what I thought about Fisherman’s Pumpkin Stout.  Guy blogs over at loudpoet.com and is the Director of Audience Development for Digital Book World.

I have to confess when Guy asked what I thought about this brew via a conversation on twitter, the first thing that came to mind besides not having tried it yet, was - I hope I never find this beer.  Alas, on a trip to a local beer store in late October, my gourd-phobic beer self was face to face with it on the new arrivals shelf.  I was compelled at that moment to shed my fear of the mangled monstrosities of pumpkin put in pints before me to at least consider buying this beer and giving honest feedback.  So here it goes.

Fisherman’s Pumpkin Stout is brewed by Cape Ann Brewing Co. in Gloucester Massachusetts.   A slight technicality in that the bottles I purchased were brewed under contract with Olde Saratoga Brewing, up in Saratoga Springs just a short jaunt up the Northway from me.  If anyone tells you that contract brewing is not really craft brewing, tell them to go talk to Jim Koch, it is how he built Sam Adams and the Boston Beer Company into what is now the largest domestically owned and operated brewery in the United States.  But that is a story or argument for another day and another pint.  To me personally, that Olde Saratoga was contract brewing for Cape Ann was a good thing.  First the beer was likely extremely fresh and second they contract brew for a lot of really excellent brewers whose brewpub operations are simply not capable of large scale production.

On to the story, the beer.  This stout pours a deep mahogany brown to near black hue with a medium to dark tan head and a good inch of stand.  As a beer is consumed you will often find “lace” from the foamy head on the inside of the glass.  This stout does not show much if any “lacing” but that is not really an important characteristic to this particular take on the style.

The aroma profile is very inviting.  Upfront you get a very assertive but not offensive mix of ginger, nutmeg and clove.  While the spices dominate they are very natural and true.  Often times when drinking beers that have pumpkin in them along with spices, the latter comes off very fake and chemical laden.  Underneath the spice is a nice note of semi-sweet chocolate and roasted barley.  There is no perceptible hop aroma, which is okay for this beer as the spices should be most prominent.  The clove and nutmeg character really shine in the nose.

Tasting this beer is truly where it could all go south fast. I have more than once taken a good whiff of a beer only to be wretchedly turned off by letting it hit my taste buds.  Not the case here.  The flavor is subdued on the spice notes which are perceived by my palate most in the finish.  The malt character is a faint mix of dark and milk chocolate with some hints of vanilla bean and mild roastiness.  There is some light roast coffee bean character as well.  Again as with the aroma nothing in the way of hop flavor, and even the bitterness is a bit understated.

For a stout the mouthfeel is on the lighter side of medium bodied, although there is a creaminess and almost slickness that coats the tongue.  The finish is medium dry, which I take as probably more pronounced by the low hop bitterness.  There is a slight malt astringency but this really should be expected in the stout family due to use of dark roasted grains.   There is no detectable alcohol warming which is not easy to pull off with a beer approaching 7% abv.

My overall impression is that this “gourd” beer is extremely well made and very drinkable.  It is easily the best beer I have had that has pumpkin as part of its recipe.  The spice character is perfect, inviting aromas upfront and very subtle flavors in the finish.  The base beer character is a little more akin to the porter style versus stout, and to my palate it could stand a little more hop addition for at least the bitterness profile.   If you really enjoy pumpkin beers, I highly recommend giving this one a try. I’d like to find my way to the brew pub in Gloucester to try a pint on draft.  It’s subtle spice and nice dark but mellow malt character will compliment the flavors of the Thanksgiving dinner nicely.  I have one last bottle stashed away for just such an encounter with a bird.  Don’t let anyone tell you the world has lost any sense of magic or discovery.  I never would have thought twice about this beer had Guy not asked me what I thought.  So thanks to his inquisitiveness, I am back in the pumpkin patch.

You can find Cape Ann Brewing on Twitter @CapeAnnBrewing

As a good friend and fine writer Keith Snider would say, Prost!  Next brew review, from the Samuel Adams Barrel Series New World Tripel.