Domestic Sunday: The Month of Pumpkin Beer Begins

There are three ways of finding out whether it's the fall or not - check the calendar, look at the leaves, or see if a multitude of pumpkin beers have overtaken the liquor stores. I never heard of pumpkin beer until I moved to Montreal, and then all the talk was about the St-Ambroise Citrouille. And that beer felt like it was an urban legend, selling out within days and never ending up in my belly. Now there are so many pumpkins beers available, that I could try one a week and still have bottles leftover by October 31st.

So let's get things started with Mill Street's Nightmare on Mill Street. This is a wheat beer, brewed with pumpkin puree, pie spices and vanilla extract. The vanilla can be smelled as soon as the bottle is opened, but doesn't come through as aggressively on the taste. It's almost all spice, with some pumpkin knocking about. I would like it to feel a little heavier on the tongue - take away the flavour, and it sits as lightly as a soda pop. I would like my pumpkin beers to be a little more robust than that, if they're going to take me through the fall and right into winter.