Wolavers Will Stevens Pumpkin Ale

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

Thin bubbly head, minimal lacing along with an amber~copper colored body. Fizzy, thin and uneventful on the palate. Good medley of spices and pumpkin followed by toffee and a faint banana presence. All in all a bit awkward.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

I had this beer at Racer's Cafe in B'more, MD with MDSmith when visiting with family and friends. This was a good pumpkin ale but cannot hold a candle to DFH Punkin' Ale. It was still a decent beer for the time of year.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9

Presentation: It was poured from a brown 12oz bottle into pint glass. It has a bottled on date of 9-10-08 and it was sampled on 9-12-09. Wow, I must have found a one year old bottle. Appearance: The body had a deep amber color with some visible carbonation. The head on top was off white in color, tall and slowly faded down to thin ring of lace. On the way down the glass it left behind some nice lace rings. Smell: The nose had notes of sweet malt, rich pumpkin meat and pumpkin pie spice with ginger being the stand out. Taste/Palate: Its spice character is up front and center with ginger and then cinnamon standing out. Next up is a sweet malty middle with noticeable roasted pumpkin flesh notes. Hop flavor also mixes in and adds to the spicy character. The finish has a nice balance of all its components and slowly fades off the tongue. It has a rich smooth texture with nice carbonation and a solid medium to full body. Notes: I really enjoyed this one year old bottle of pumpkin ale. This probably is not a style known for ageing but it was still quite good. The organic pumpkin flavor was very nice and noticeable with a good balance of spice, hops and malt.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Man I love a good pumpkin beer. Pours a cloudy orange colour with a large white head. Immediate aroma of nutmeg, pumpkin pie, cinnamon and molasses. Taste is rich with pumpkin, spices and grahm cracker like flavors. Mouthfeel is creamy, pleasent- overall flavors are great. A really nice beer.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Fall 2008 for me is all about the pumpkin ales. I want to try all the pumpkin ales I can get my hands on. This Wolaver's ale is something I've been dying to try for a while, I just haven't picked up a sixer yet. Much to my surprise, I stopped in to Frisco Grill in Columbia, MD and this bad boy was on draught. Ahh my night was made.

The waitress brought this one to the table and it looked like a pumpkin pie in a glass. The beer had this beautiful orangy color to it with a creamy off-white head on top of it that was about a finger thick. The head stuck around a bit, but left very little in the way of lacing. The smell was pretty good, not great though. Compared to some of the other pumpkin ales I've had, this one was really mild in that there was no overpowering cinnamon or pumpkin smell coming from the glass. It was actually quite enjoyable and sweet smelling.

The flavor follows up on the aroma in that it has a very happy balance of pureed pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and some sugars. The beer is extremely smooth drinking and pleasant. There's just enough body to it that it isn't chunky like some pumpkin ales, but isn't watered down as well. I would tend to think this is the pumpkin ale for the masses.

Now although the Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale is my favorite, this one definitely comes in an extremely close second. I recommend anyone looking to experiment with their first pumpkin ale, try this one out first. You'll love it.