Karbach Brewing Co. Krunkin Pumpkin

October 30th, 2012 by Scott in Other Beer Reviews

To all the breweries releasing their Christmas/holiday beers now:

Why don’t we have time? Because we’re too busy enjoying the fall beers!

Karbach Brewing Co., one of Houston’s newer breweries, recently released a pumpkin beer for its fall seasonal. Pumpkin beers are one of my favorite styles (Jenn would agree, while Jason would disagree, and you’d know this if you listened to our appearance on the Main Street Podcast). This beer is fairly scarce, but I managed to get my hands on a couple of bottles.

Karbach was kind enough to give us instructions on how to make this one on the bottle!

1. Take pale, Munich and crystal malts and mash for 90 minutes.

2. Lauter with pumpkins baked for 60 minutes at 420 degrees and boil wort for 70 minutes.

3. Add hops at beginning and end of boil and add pumpkin pie spices at very end of the boil.

4. Ferment wtih Belgian ale yeast, cold condition and bottle.

Best served chilled in goblet-style glass to goblins, ghouls or naughty nurses at your favorite Halloween party or uptight in-laws at Thanksgiving dinner.

Krunkin Pumpkin is a dark murky brown liquid with orange highlights and a rapidly dissipating off-white head. The scent reminds me a little of Trois Pistoles, surprisingly. It has a clean yeast scent with a bit of pumpkin and spice in it, but definitely not an overpowering scent. The taste is hard to get a lock on; I was expecting a big pumpkin pie-like flavor, but while those flavors are there, they’re subdued. There’s a dark fruit sweetness in there up front, again reminiscent of Trois Pistoles. No sign of alcohol in the taste. The beer has a medium viscosity and the carbonation is also average, but it’s very crisp and clean in the finish.

Honestly, if I didn’t know this was a pumpkin beer, I might not immediately think of it as one. It’s definitely a good beer and one worth drinking, but if that pumpkin pie flavor is what you’re looking for, you’ll only get hints of it here.