Elysian The Great Pumpkin

Well I figured after reviewing the Pumking I should just keep the pumpking theme right on rolling! Also it's a nice little festive beer run-up to Halloween for all of us in this country that indulge in one of our more rediculous holidays. I have not reviewed it yet, but let me just state that before I review any pumpkin ale my baseline for a good one is Elysian's Night Owl. This was the first I ever tasted, and for so very long doned the crown of the best. That was until several breweries decided to make their own spin on this wonderful holiday ale, and spruce it up in any way they could. These past couple years I've tasted some great pumpkin based ales (see Pumking), but Elysian always makes several variations, and tries to differentiate themselves from the pack as much as possible by delinieating this ale in as many ways possible. From Elysian's pumpkin well springs yet another great one, The Great Pumpkin to be specific. Although not labeled as such, this tastes like an Imperial version of their popular Night Owl pumpkin ale. In short that means a great taste juiced on steroids, to bring you a truly great flavor. Great Pumpkin makes night owl look like a dynamite compared to a pop-it. As with all pumpkin ales there is a great smell of spices in the mix, similar of course to a pumpkin pie in most cases. Elysian does the favor of listing all in the brew cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice. Picking out each individual spice is hard, but the combined flavor leaves this smelling like pure, distilled pumpkin pie. As if it were simply put in a blender and allowed to ferment! The taste follows it's lead, but unlike Night Owl this one has the flavor of a strong ale. It has an old ale taste, but with a very smooth texture, which is rare even for those types of ales. All the other flavors are there, make no illusions to yourself this beer is hefty on the sweetness, tons of flavor, and not listed but I am sure the alcohol percentage must be above 10%. I would even go so far to label this a dessert beer, simply from the intense, sweet flavor this brew provides. It is all good in my opinion, as Elysian seems to reconcile it's seat as the king of pumpkin ales. If you have a chance visit the brewery they usual have a couple special pumpkin ales around now, and even a pumpkin brew festival sometime this month. I deeply enjoyed Southern Tier's Pumking, Elysian's the Great Pumpkin takes it up another notch. Sorry New York, the Northwest loves their beer like so many thing in life, strong, and sweet. For another great pumpkin ale, definitely track this down so you have a baseline to measure out how good the rest of the pack is, and just how far they are away from sweet pumpkin perfection!