THE GREAT PUMPKIN (BEER) OFF FEATURING 17. EPIC BREWING CO. - FERMENTATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION

This week was a doozy. I mean, seriously.

Between three GRE practice tests, free tickets to the Wood Aged Beer Festival at Brewery Vivant, and the always-glorious October Art Hop downtown Kalamazoo (basically a monthly walking gallery and studio tour), I've been keeping a few reviews on backlog so I can go back and correct grammar/finally upload photos, etc. There hasn't been much time to do this for the past few days. So let's start with Friday, shall we?

I sampled this particular beer with my friend Nick Benitez. On that note, I am going to take a brief second to plug The Michigan Beer Film, which he edited.

If you live in Michigan, and haven't had a chance to see it yet, JUMP. ON. IT. You will leave feeling overwhelmed with pride for the craft beer industry in our great state. It's an incredible high. Below is a list of upcoming showings thus far.


The film also needs no further explanation from me, as you can just view the trailer that I have linked below. Bask in the gorgeous imagery. Picture mittens filled with flavorful beer.





I just can't say this enough, go see this film.

Anyway, Nick and I shared Epic Brewing Co.'s Fermentation Without Representation (8% abv).

This beer is spectacular. I've had it before, I knew what to expect and I was still just... absolutely beside myself after every sip. Of course, I love a porter and I love pumpkin.

That's the main thing to remember about this guy. Pumpkin ales normally have a solid malty backbone to support mild squashy flavors and sometimes pumpkin pie-esque spices.

But using a porter base and accenting it with gorgeous layers of baking spice and hefty pumpkin notes is something you see significantly less often, and yet the melding of these two beer genres, pumpkin ale and porter, creates seriously unmatched complexity.


In a pint glass, you've got an incredibly opaque beer, but not quite black. Darker than coca-cola. There's a good, healthy thickness to it as it pours, and you've got amazing retention in this dense, spice colored head.

Aroma is total heaven in a glass. Little cocoa powder, great roasty malts with a little bit of that deep porter smoke. There's only a hint of pumpkin, but you get the nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla bean coming through strong.

This beer has such amazing flavor because you really get the best possible porter perfectly balanced with a hint of pumpkin, and TONS of spice. I mean, you expect cinnamon and possibly nutmeg, but I'm getting a ton of variety in spices here, including ginger, cardamon, and allspice. Pumpkin beers have the tendency for me to get overwhelmed by sweetness with all of those baking spices, which sometimes isn't a bad thing. But the dryness of a porter really keeps the sweetness in check. The porter side reflects the aroma a lot, with a nice, bitter chocolate that lingers, the dry smokiness, and a subtle booze that never becomes overbearing.

I just really enjoy this beer. It's become a season staple for me. It's absolutely worth snagging if you see it. Don't even look at the price tag, just buy it.

Then come back and thank me in the comments.

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