Tonight’s beer was the first of the autumn beers for me, Gritty’s Halloween Ale. I don’t have a whole lot to say about it. I initially thought it was this beer I had last year that had a nice pumpkin spice flavor to it, but I’m thinking otherwise now after having looked at the style (ESB). It’s definitely a good beer. It’s nothing super special, but it’s a nice solid fall brew. It hits you with some up front bitterness, but that mellows out and turns into a nice roasted flavor and then as the taste lingers in your mouth, the bitterness comes back. As the beer warms up a bit, some of that bitterness dies and more of the roasted malt flavors come out, but that spicy bitterness still hangs around a bit. All in all, it’s a good solid beer and makes for a nice session beer. I can see myself spending all night drinking only these.
Now I just need to figure out which was the nice pumpkin beer I had. I’m hoping it’s the Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale (though it could’ve been from the Shipyard or Sea Dog, 2 beers which I did not buy this time around, but there’s always Friday).