Grand Canyon Brewing Co. (Williams, AZ.)
It’s safe to say that fall is my favorite time of year. The temperatures go from scorching hot to a more bearable climate. October is a month that seems to be made just for me. My birthday and Halloween are only days apart and the big influx of fall beers, pumpkin this and pumpkin that just get me in a cheery mood.
Porter style beers are among one of my favorites, and when I found this Pumpkin Springs Porter, I nearly did a back flip in the liquor store. Luckily for the good folks at the liquor store, I am way to hefty to pull off a back flip, thus saving their displays from imminent destruction.
Grand Canyon Brewing Co. is located in the small town of Williams, right off of the historic Route 66 Highway. Known as the Gateway to the Grand Canyon, they offer many ales that are as big and bold as the canyon itself. This Pumpkin Porter is named after a pumpkin shaped, naturally occurring hot spring in the canyon, where natural trace minerals and arsenic stain the water a pumpkin orange color.
Pumpkin Springs Porter pours a deep brown with a rolling, subtle aroma of pie and spices and a nice tan head. It is brewed with not just pumpkins, but also various squash and sweet potatoes as well as the pie spices that you’d expect. Initial flavor is rich and round with a smooth mouth feel that is warm and welcoming. The spices aren’t overwhelming, they are more of an accent, and I really am loving this. Slight roasted malt flavors co-mingle with sweet potato and gourd flavors. The only hop essence I can detect is a small amount of earthy hop bitterness in the finish. Coming in at 5.8% alc., this is just above sessionable levels and at only 32 IBU’s, this makes this one hell of an easy drinking porter that will get you set for fall.
I will most certainly pick up several more bottles of this and stockpile them for my birthday, Halloween and Thanksgiving. I am nearly in a state of pumpkin euphoria right now and I can highly recommend this to any lover of porters, pumpkin or otherwise. Cheers!
Grand Canyon Brewery
233 W. Route 66
Williams, AZ 86046
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