First off, I am not a pumpkin fan. A vegetable* that is a huge waste of space, good for decorations and killing an hour with the grand kids carving jack-o-lanterns. Roasted seeds the size of your pinkie nail from a great orange bloated sphere of mush. Why would anyone ever even consider making a pie out of such a thing? But through my dedication to beer reviewing and in the spirit of Halloween I thought it was a necessary evil to try a pumpkin brew. I told the helpful fellow at the LCBO that I had a strong distaste for pumpkin and he said he did too and this Whitewater porter was his go to brew. Fair enough, a good reference from someone not on commission. Here is the thing. This is a pumpkin spice porter and there is no pumpkin in pumpkin spice.**
A pitch pretty porter pour, substantial and smooth. Dark but not foreboding with a light tan foam topper. Pumpkin spice aroma, odd and somewhat disconcerting on the nose for a self-confessed pumpkin pie hater. First swig, full porter coffee flavour with a bit of spice. Actually a nice combo. It has a strong flavour, no surprise for an espresso porter. It is smooth with the pumpkin spice giving it a sweet spice (rather than a sweet fruit) finish. This brew is growing on me, I think I like it.
Let’s say you were short on flavour, the flavour truck delivery is late, and your flavour inventory is low. You are about to run out of flavour, be flavourless, trapped in a flavour vacuum. Zip, nada, nil in the flavour department. You know who you would call? You would call this Espresso Porter because it has flavour to spare. With this brew you get a ticket on the flavour express.
This combination only works with a strong full porter flavour, enter espresso, and it does work.
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