Brewery: Infamous Brewing Company
Beer: Pumpkin Massacre
Style: Pumpkin Ale
ABV: 7.5%
Character: Brewed as a Porter with added spices of a pumpkin pie
Ratings at the time of Review: BA: n/a | RB: n/a
Metal Connection: DENIAL FIEND – After Party Massacre
BeerMetalDude Rating: 3.5/5
Here we have an Austin, TX based brewery that is creeping up on their 3rd year anniversary next month. For the past 3 years, I have been able to have had several of their beers, 7 to be exact. This is my first time I had a bottle specifically for this website. Of course, in typical BeerMetalDude fashion, I am drinking and reviewing a pumpkin beer in February. I will hopefully be adding more of their beers on the site, as they are available locally at my normal craft beer bottle stores.
Knowing this website, I’m sure you can figure out why I purchased this bottle for a review on here. The Halloween and creepy feel of this beer label is simply awesome. The label is dark with a night sky background complete with hazy brown toned clouds or maybe mountains way in the background. Hard to really tell with the clip art style drawing. The artwork features a church-like haunted house with a graveyard in the front yard as the label wraps around the bottle, some jack-o-lanterns on the ground at the edge of the graveyard, and the headless horseman on his hose, waving an axe in the air on the end of the label. Pretty spot on for this style of beer.
I used my Real Ale Brewing Company 19th Anniversary willybecher style glass for this beer. Pumpkin Massacre poured a thick opaque dark brown, similar to a cola drink. The initial pout gave this beer a near inch wide tan colored head, which quickly disappeared leaving no lacing at all down the glass.
The aroma was not as overpowering as I thought it would be. There are the usual suspects here with traces of nutmeg, cinnamon, and clove with some similarities to pumpernickel bread. There is a great mixture of pumpkin pie filling, yams, bread, caramel, and some earthiness. Lingering scents of pumpkin pie and spice bread linger in the nose.
Right up front in the taste of this beer, it reminds me of a Halloween candy. Caramel, and pumpkin pie filling hit the palate first, followed by a group of spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, and even some brown sugar. The spices are not overpowering like most pumpkin ales. Pumpernickel bread-like flavors show up after the spices have faded a bit, along with more caramel, and toffee. There is a bit of an earthy taste as well. A small hint of chocolate shows up at the end, again giving this beer a real Halloween candy taste that lingers a bit after each swill.
The thickness is a tad bit heavier than a medium bodied beer. Low carbonation. The mouthfeel is slick, smooth, and a bit oily with a slick mouth coating finish.
Overall, I will say that is a pretty decent Pumpkin Ale. I will say that I was torn in two halves though, as one side was impressed by the fact that the typical flavors of spices, which are normally overpowering, were in fact a bit muted, and combined evenly with the other flavors of this beer, and on the other hand, I was a bit disappointed that the flavors were muted, as I really do try to review to style, as well as my own personal thoughts. I still gave this beer an above average rating, and I will love to drink this again. I do love the thickness and mouthfeel of this beer, and would love to hopefully see this beer on a nitro tap one day.
Metal Connection: I will say that I found the perfect pairing for this beer. I present to you all the Death/Thrash Metal band named Denial Fiend from Florida. Why did I choose this band? Well, let me explain. When this band first started in 2006, it was made up of all ex-members of the legendary Death Metal band, Massacre. On their debut full length album, They Rise there was more of a Death Metal approach with vocalist, Kam Lee (Massacre fame) leading the charge. On the band’s second full length album, Horror Holocaust (2011) there was a change in line-up, which now features ex-D.R.I. drummer, Rob Rampy, and Blaine “Fart” Cook, ex-vocalist for the Thrash Metal/Crossover band, The Accüsed. The vocal style of Cook is definitely a change for the band, giving them more of a crustier edge. I believe this works well with their style of heavy Death/Thrash Metal. Besides the tie to the band Massacre, the second reason for choosing this song for the Metal Connection is that it is appropriately titled “After Party Massacre.” I mean, who couldn’t drink a good beer to a song by this title, especially when the beer is called Pumpkin Massacre.
Beer Metal Media 