Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale

Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale (2018)

Seasonal / 12 fl. oz. (x6) / $11.49 USD / 6.7% ABV

Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale poured a dark amber orange color with a small white foamy head. Despite being unfiltered and containing sediment the beer is actually pretty clear, if only slightly hazy. Cool looking owl on the label and a nice ABV of 6.7%, and you know I've been looking forward to this one for quite some time... but I'll talk about that later. Time to lean in and get a whiff of this sucker...

Holy Shit this smells amazing! 100% pumpkin pie, no joke. Cinnamon and sugar up front on the nose and that's just the way I like it. Spices mingling all around behind that. But this scent, it's like taking a bite of some really good pumpkin pie with whipped cream on top. Also a bit reminiscent of vanilla sugar cookies. I hope the taste delivers on the smell.

First gulp goin' in... and I don't know how they do it. Supposedly they use six varieties of malts in this and how that works to create such a clean and solid pumpkin pie flavored beer is beyond me. You get a little flood of that nutmeg, allspice and believe it or not it does have a lingering aftertaste of pumpkin seeds. There's a very nice mild sweetness, just enough bitterness to balance it but not overwhelm, and then on top of that it just rides out real smooth. All those malts with a single magnum hop and there's nothing ill-flavored to it at all. It just overall tastes really fucking good. I'm very pleased that this beer features such a pronounced cinnamon-sugar taste up front, with just the perfect amount of ginger, allspice and clover to round it out. Most of the time those last three go overboard when it come to pumpkin beers. Getting into it there's a slight bit of smokiness and that toasty roasted bit that hides in the background but is appreciated.

Elysian beers haven't been available near me until just a few months ago when Space Dust (a personal favorite and #1 go-to beer as of late), Dayglow and Superfuzz showed up out of nowhere. With that happening my first thought was that I hope some of their pumpkin beers show up as well. I haven't had any of their pumpkin beers (aside from an 8 oz pour of their Headless Horsey pumpkin brett and a 4 oz pour of their Gourdfather pumpkin barleywine back in 2012 at the CBC Great Pumpkin Festival) so I guess you could say that I've been looking forward to this beer for the last 7 years! I'm very happy to report that it meets and even surpasses all expectations. Well done Elysian.