Domestic Thursday: Black Creek Pumpkin Ale

Photo by Ally

My fridge is still looking festive, thanks to more pumpkin beer and a particularly spoooooky dessicated swiss chard. Woooooo. 

That should probably be thrown out, though I will hold on to Black Creek Historic Brewery's Pumpkin Ale. You may remember Black Creek from my December outing. As a brewery headquartered in a historical village, it's dedicated to preserving the brewing traditions of the 19th century - for ales produced on-site, at least. LCBO-sourced bottles like this one are made in a commercial space, to meet demand... and because sticking on labels using Ye Olde Flour Paste would have been tedious. 

Unlike Mill Street's entry, this one is strictly barley-based. My fellow beer questers, Aleks and Ally, tried both. Aleks found Mill Street's to be very fizzy and a little more bitter, while she tasted citrus in Black Creek's, and liked it better. I would agree. The spices seemed better balanced in this brew, and I even thought there was something woodsy about it, before the beer kicked in and reminded me that I was being unbearably pretentious. As Aleks pointed out, neither tastes all that much like pumpkin, though both smell like a fresh-baked pie. Thirty days later, I hope to figure out if that's because pumpkin is such a subtle taste to infuse, or if the spices overwhelm everything else. Cheers to research.