Review - Cisco Brewers's Pumple Drumkin
"On Nantucket a pumple named Drumkin, brewed up some great ale with his pumpkins. One and all came to savor the delicious flavor, then wobbled around quite like bumpkins. At Cisco they thought, This is De-Lish! Let's make some more because we wish, to please all the tourists, and locals and purists, with the best ale that we can accomplish!" -- Cisco Brewers
Pours a deep amber color with a small fizzy off-white head with short retention. Un-tenacious lacing falls right off the glass. Body clarity is high and carbonation levels are very low. Color has darkened up a bit more as it has settled out, adding some red hues. The nose initially detected a light floral hop characters. The floral hops aroma is combined with a myriad of pumpkin spices - light ginger, nutmeg and soft cinnamon notes. The aroma is rather complex mixture of hops, spices and doughy malts. Initial taste is slightly sweet with some interesting bitter cinammon, but the surprise comes at the finish where some hop bitterness comes forward and takes over the flavor. With festive carbonation and a light/thin body, the Pumple Drumkin has a watery texture that washes down our throats easy - almost too easy. The hop presence is quite dominant, creating a mouth puckering bitterness. The hops combining with the mellow pumpkin spices, left our palates rather dry.
The addition of noticeable hops was a welcome surprise to a pumpkin beer, as we\'re not usually treated to that sort of finish. Although this beer features Nantucket pumpkins as an ingredient, I\'m not so sure that it\'s a pumpkin beer as more of a beer with pumpkin added.
Reviewed on September 27th, 2009.
