Beer Review: Pumpkin Stout (Newfangled Brew Works)

So, first off, this is interesting… decided to make this my first beer review / blog entry for November; and its not quite what I thought it was going to be. As you can see, this is a bit of a “weird” moment and I’m curious what my recall on this all is.

I met D. Scott after work on Tuesday at Newfangled Brew Works for a quick beer before picking up my girls from my parents, and he had gotten the Festbier (which they have a Festbier called ‘Fest’) and I saw they had a new “Pumpkin Stout”. So I ordered that and had a draft, and drank it down and it was delicious, and thus why I chose to make this the blog post for today… but now, checking it on Untappd to write-this up, there is no Pumpkin Stout, and what I had checked in as Pumpkin Stout has turned into Pumpkin Spice Ale, and the pictures of my beer and others don’t align – and don’t look – at all similar. So I’m wondering if it was a one-off adjunct of their regular stout and that they released an actual Pumpkin Spice Ale that I didn’t have but everyone else did apparently.

So before I get into all that, let me get into about last night / this morning. So like I said with my Fatum: Member Berry review yesterday, I was planning on doing one (last night); after Trick or Treat and everything. Well, like I also said, that was a “tentative” plan, and I did want to. But, again, like I said (can I really do three straight sentences where I say “like I said”… yes I can…) with my hectic life I wasn’t sure if I would. I really wanted to, but it just didn’t work out. So, Trick or Treat in Hummelstown was canceled and rescheduled to tonight (like nearly everywhere else) because of the massive storm that came through. So we went to Pizza Boy for their kids buffet thing, and then went to Boneshire Brew Works for their Halloween Bash – which sadly was pretty empty due to the storm – and then after all that, and having to stop at Wal-Mart for last second kid Halloween school parade neccessity we got stuck in some flash flooding and everything and didn’t get home til late, and then had to do the work for said outfit, …and well, by 11PM I was just too exhausted for this, so I turned on BoJack on Netflix and I was out in no time. (Didn’t hurt I also had the St. Thomas 11% pastry stout from Pizza Boy, and the 9.5% Smores LazaRIS stout from Boneshire).

So back to where I started this off…. I’m in a bit of a conundrum here it would seem. I’ll show the picture of the beer I have, with the knowledge that it was listed as a “Pumpkin Stout” and tasted as such, and the signage at the bar said that, and the bartender repeated what I ordered. So here’s my beer:

Now, the next two pictures are from people I know who later (one being even later the same day / night as the time I was there) ordered and their check-ins are listed as “Pumpkin Spice Ale” (just like mine was moved to):

From the pictures alone, it is clearly evident that its two different beers. I believe one (the lighter brown, that others have had) is the Pumpkin Spice Ale its listed as on Untappd, and the one I had is just a variant of the Newfangled Stout – a Pumpkin Spice variant. So I will be doing my review on the basis of it being a variant of the stout, and that it is/was/is a stout, and just a Pumpkin Spice Stout.

I will give listings and information for both the Stout from Newfangled Brew Works and the Pumpkin Spice Ale from Newfangled Brew Works. I would assume that the ABV / IBU and information would be spot on with the Stout; just that it has Pumpkin Spice flavorings, rather than being similar in ABV / IBU to the Pumpkin Spice Ale.

Beer: Stout (Pumpkin Spice)
Brewery: Newfangled Brew Works
Style: Stout – American
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: 40
Untappd Write-Up: (None)

Beer: Pumpkin Spice Ale
Brewery: Newfangled Brew Works
Style: Festbier
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: (None)

So theres a few similarities right there. Perhaps they are the same beer? Perhaps… but I dunno. I don’t see why mine would be so dark, and it definitely wasn’t lighting. And I know for a fact it tasted far more like a stout than a festbier or marzen.

Anyway, onto the review…. of…. the beer….. I think… pretty sure…. possibly…. had….

So as you can see in the picture above, its black, stealth bomber black. There is a thin small head to it with a little foam, little carbonation, little bubbles mostly interspersed. Typical appearance and look of stouts.

Aroma is very heavy pumpkin and spices. Nutmeg, cinnamon, a variety of the fall oriented spices. The pumpkin is certainly the strongest, but you do get notes of the spices heavily, and slightly roasted malt aroma as well.

Taste is upfront pumpkin, with backbone typical stout. It tastes very similar to the Newfangled Stout, but with Pumpkin and spices. You get notes of cinnamon, nutmeg, and coffee all mixed in with the stronger presence of pumpkin. You get some notes of roasty malt, some notes of a bit of caramel malt, but the pumpkin and spices pretty much overflows this.

So this was certainly an interesting one to review.

I gave the Pumpkin Stout a rating of: 3.75
I had given the original Stout a rating of: 3.50

Global Stout Rating: 3.63 (as of 11.1.19)
Global Pumpkin Spice Ale Rating: 3.94 (as of 11.1.19)

I started writing this review up early this morning, but had to get the girls to school, then had to go to the DMV, and had breakfast, and stopped at Tattered Flag and had a beer, and now finally getting it up a fair bit later than I wanted, but at least its getting posted. Sorry for the confusion on this one.

But I think we got it sorted out, or at least, I hope so.

As I’ve said before, in previous, blog posts, for November, in honor of NaNoWriMo, I am hoping to write a blog post every day of the month. So stay tuned to see how long I can go; hopefully the whole month! That’ll be 30 blog entries. So lets hope I can do it!

Speaking of that, some stats on the blog, since I have the moment and it feeds in with what I was just saying:


May: 121 Views – 9 Posts
June: 1,174 Views – 14 Posts
July: 2,500 Views – 18 Posts
August: 3,993 Views – 15 Posts
September: 4,370 Views – 16 Posts
October: 5,611 Views – 18 Posts

So here’s hoping for 30+ posts in November, and hitting 6K in views.

Thanks everyone for checking us out! So be sure to click like, follow, subscribe, save, bookmark, do whatever ya gotta do, to get to see each and every post, and to see if I can go 30 days and post 30 times. Thank you all for making this such a successful and fun blog to write for!

-B. Kline