The Brewery: Harpoon Brewery (Boston, MA)
The Brew: Harpoon Imperial Pumpkin (Stout)
Availability: 22 oz Bottles/Draft (seasonal, limited)
ABV: 10.5%
Rating: 8/10
Location: Home
The Story? I was pretty stoked earlier this year to hear of more breweries releasing stouts-based big pumpkin beers, such as this Harpoon Imperial Pumpkin and Southern Tier's Warlock. I couldn't find HIP until our Vermont trip at the end of September, where I picked this up. Still no visual on Warlock yet.
This beast boasts pumpkin puree, molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg, roasted malts, and a 10.5% ABV and was improvised in Harpoon's 10-barrel kettle with leftover pumpkin from their UFO Pumpkin batch.
The Beer? Harpoon Imperial Pumpkin pours out jet black with a finger of head that quickly fades to zilch. The nose is big and full of spice with clove at the forefront backed by a hint of pumpkin.
Unabashed flavors of clove and cinnamon kick off the flavor ride amidst growing sweetness from the pumpkin and stout backbone. Stout really is a great canvas for this brew. The mouthfeel is lighter than expected complemented by a slight creaminess, low carbonation, and velvety spice mouthfeel.
The real kicker is how easy this goes down. For an Imperial Stout, this brew is incredibly light on its feet. It's deceptively smooth with the light body and carbonation and the hefty dose of spice completely masks the high ABV. In a blind test, I would have put this one at a 6%, max.
If you're looking for a wallop of spice and effective alcohol content that still goes down easy this Imperial Pumpkin is calling for you.
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