Black Creek (Unintentionally) Sour Pumpkin Ale

[mintjellie]

1.93/5 rDev -37.1%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 1.5

Murky medium amber body, hazy with lots of small floaties. Two finger head dies fast and doesn't lace. Smells like lemon, pumpkin, and almost imaginary spices. Tart lemon flavour up front with subtle vegetal and spice notes. Thin, watery, and oddly chalky with low carbonation. This is definately off, but it hasn't gained much carbonation from the unintended refermentation in the bottle. Oddly enough, the off aroma and flavour isn't particularly unpleasant - just very inappropriate in a beer of this style. This might be a really bad pumpkin beer, but it's only a mediocre sour. Weird.

Serving type: bottle

Reviewed on: 11-30-2012 04:20:06

[JesseM]

It's a Pumpkin Lambic.

Email the brewery and tell them how great it is that they've been pioneering Lambic's in Ontario for years now.

[irishkyle21]

Had one from this years batch. Just plain awful. Completely flat. Been multiple infected bottles or flat bottles I've had now. Won't be buying anything Black Creek again.

[icemachine]

So the Trafalgar production issues are catching up to them?

[skaghevn]

Had one just the other week. While not my fave pumpkin beer, it was quite fine, as has been every other Black Creek bottle I've purchased.

[schomberger]

Haven't tried this years batch, but had a bunch last year with no problems, though as mentioned above it's nothing special. For regular abv pumpkins I stick to Grand River Highballer, for high abv it's Southern tier pumking.

[Belgian]

Sure, blame Traf#%&gar.

(Again.)

Wait is this flemish sour ale any good? Will it make a nice carbonnade flamande if I can find some bison stewing meat?

[G.M. Gillman]

There did seem something unusual I thought, it seemed a little lactic/acetic (yogurt-like?), yet it still had good pumpkin odours and the typical spicy taste.

I'd style this an "old ale" in 19th terms, which is neither here nor there really.

I blended it 50-50 with Great Lakes Pumpkin Ale, and added a few splashes of Sinha Stout, to make a "Black Pumpkin Ale". Very good it is, too.

Gary

[Belgian]

There did seem something unusual I thought, it seemed a little lactic/acetic (yogurt-like?), yet it still had good pumpkin odours and the typical spicy taste...

A growler of Mill Street Pumpkin that went off for me had a cream cheese like lactic character. It was odd.

[G.M. Gillman]

Interesting. I wonder if something in the pumpkin itself can cause this, or maybe it is just a coincidence.

Gary

[Matty D]

I just purchased two bottles of this over the past two weeks and both were fine. I actually found this years a bit better than last years, it isn't a big ale like ST but it has just enough pumpkin and spices to work for me unlike a few other pumpkin ales that lacked in one area or another.

[ErkLR]

All 4 bottles I've had (3 purchases) have been fine. On Tuesday I had the Black Creek right before the Highballer, and though I really like Highballer, the Black Creek was the better of the two I think.

[schomberger]

Hmmmm...sounds like I might have to try this year's batch of Black Creek; I enjoyed last years though it wasn't that pumpkiny imo.

As for the Highballer, which I mentioned as a fav on another thread, I've found this year's batch less satisfyng after noticing a buttery taste in my second bottle.

[Belgian]

re: Highballer, sorry to hear anything negative about Grand River as they are one of the un-sung superstar breweries we have, IMO.

Not that I like everything they brew (the imperial stout I find puzzling) and they throw a few curveballs, but GR make a lot of great beers and do things with real integrity.