Buffalo Bill's Brewery - America's Original Pumpkin Ale

Tonight we're picking up where we left off last night. I had originally planned to review this beer yesterday, but I got sidetracked. Plus, my wife wanted to do a review, so I helped her with that. Anyway, tonight's beer review is Buffalo Bill's Brewery, America's Original Pumpkin Ale. I think out of all of the pumpkin beers, this one is probably the easiest to find in stores. Touted as an "ale brewed with real pumpkin and natural spice flavor", the bottle really suggests that you are about to be hit with some pumpkin madness. Well, we'll be the judge of that.

The Buffalo Bill's Brewery website educates us on their five main beer bottle offerings: Orange Blossom Cream Ale, Alimony IPA, Blueberry Oatmeal Stout (which sounds pretty intense), Imperial Pumpkin Ale, and the America's Original Pumpkin Ale. Suffice it to say, Buffalo Bill's wasn't created to brew regular beers.

Now, today is November 9. So, I've had probably about 6-8 different pumpkin beers this season. At this point, Pumpking is far and away winner of best pumpkin beer. I haven't gotten to Good Gourd yet, but I have a feeling that beer will be just as good as Pumking. But, I guess what I'm driving at is I'm getting a litte tired of the pumpkin beers; so, Buffalo Bill may suffer in it's review. I suppose I'll try to be as objective as Fox News....

"America's Original" poured a very nice golden orange/copper color, and fizzed with carbonation. The head was pretty nonexistent though. Upon first scent, there was a nice layer of pumpkin. It was nice to smell because the last couple pumpkin beers were labeled as pumpkin, but I was pretty skeptical that there was any pumpkin at all. This pumpkin is pretty drinkable, I'd say comparable to Pumpkinhead from Shipyard, but this one is a bit more watery towards the back. There's a little bit of spice, but nothing too heavy. There's also very light nutmeg, but it's not very prevalent.

Overall, this beer, which is supposed to be like "pumpkin pie in a bottle", sort of falls flat for me. I don't think the beginning carbonation did any favors for the rest of the drinking experience. It's smooth, but somewhat watery. The spices do also get lost within the drink.

Not sure how to end this one. I got it for 2 bucks at World Market, so, if you see it at your local retailer, it's cheap enough that if you don't like it, you won't feel bad about not liking it.

ABV: 5.2%