This beer should have been drank around Thanksgiving time. I got it not too long ago, and have been dying to try it. Southern Tier does a great job with way over the top beers (Choklat for one, it’s like drinking Hershey’s syrup straight from the bottle), so I had high hopes for this. If I were judging it by the bottle, it would get an awesome, I like the simplicity yet coolness of their artwork.

I pop the cap off, pour into my pint glass. Immediately I smell baked goods. I check out the appearance, and it is nice looking. Clear copper with a 1 finger head that lasted a few. I put my nose into the beer to smell, even though it wasn’t really necessary. It smelled like a loaf of bread, very crusty, with hints of cinnamon. Basically like a fresh pumpkin pie right out of the oven. The first sips were cinnamon jumping out and bitch slapping me. Wow, heavily spiced. It’s almost like when you are putting the spices into your pie, and instead of 1 tablespoon of cinnamon, the top falls off and you get 10 tablespoons. There is some sweetness there, but mostly spices. Alcohol is fairly well hidden, I wouldn’t have guessed this was 9% ABV. Pumking is fairly light bodied with nice carbonation.

Overall, this beer is not for me. I am not knocking it in any way. I like my pumpkin pies with very little spice. Some like them powerful. If you like it like that, then this beer is for you. In my opinion, Pumking wins the category of beer that closely resembles pie in a bottle. The crusty aroma, spicy taste, it’s a pie. However, for my tastes, this Pumpkin ale ranks towards the bottom of the list of pumpkin ales I’ve had. So far I would rank them in this order:

Cape Ann Brewing Pumpkin Stout

Dogfish Head Punkin’ Ale

Brooklyn Post Road Pumpkin Ale

Southern Tier Pumking

Lastly, that crap called Blue Moon Harvest Moon Pumkin Ale. Don’t worry Southern Tier, yours is 1000 times better than that.