It’s the last pumpkin beer review for 2011! It’s been a month already and we are on our fourth pumpkin beer for October! Let’s get to it!
We had a hiccup with one of the pumpkin ales that we bought. It was skunky.
Ugh.
A skunky beer is never a good experience. So we were kind of scrambling to find a replacement beer. The thing with pumpkin beers, they don’t last long. When you see them in the store, you gotta jump on those quick because once they are gone, they’re gone.
Only so many of them get made and sometimes they are in limited release.
We stumbled across this Jolly Pumpkin , La Parcela No. 1 Pumpkin Ale and picked it up.
I have had Jolly Pumpkin’s La Roja which is a sour beer. It’s lovely for a very hot and humid summer day which means it’s great beer for an Ohio summer.
I decided to go with their Pumpkin Ale because if the brewery has pumpkin in the name, they should know what they’re doing, right?
Smell: 2/5 
Scott said if you breathed in deep enough you could pick up the spice in this beer. I think he “thinks” he could smell something. I got nothing. This beer is aged in oak barrels and I definitely picked up that note but I didn’t get any pumpkin or any spices in this beer. It’s also supposed to have some cacao in it to deepen the flavor and smell a bit.
Seriously I got nothing.
It gets a 2/5 because Scott said he smelled some spice.
Head: 4/5
This beer had a great head on it that developed perfectly as the beer was poured. It stuck around for a little while as well which was nice to see. It was more white than an off white, but still great nonetheless.
Color: 5/5
The color on this beer was exceptional. It had a smooth and deep rich orange color. Very fall-esque! It was also perfectly cloudy and dense. Exactly what I like to see in a beer, especially a pumpkin ale. I couldn’t get over how fabulous the beer looked. I kept turning the glass over and over just to stare at the color.
Taste: 1/5
Unfortunately, this beer fell flat. With the color and given that it was aged in oak barrels, I expected this beer to have some heft and some kick to it.
Nothing.
It was extremely light tasting and almost evaporated on your tongue. It was very similar in style to a cider and if you like ciders, perhaps you’ll like this style of pumpkin ale.
I still didn’t pick up any spices or pumpkin flavor at all while drinking it. It also reminded me of their sour beer as this had a bit of a sour finish to it.
I was not a fan. I didn’t have much of the glass and in the end neither Scott nor I could finish this beer.
Summary:
My fault, I set myself up and had high expectations for this beer. With it being created by a brewing company called The Jolly Pumpkin and with it being aged in oak barrels, I thought this beer would knock my socks off. Sadly it did not. It’s drinkable but not a beer I would seek out or purchase again.
However if you like ciders and really enjoy sour style beers, give this beer a chance because it might be right up your alley.