We've always like Shipyard Pumpkinhead so we were intrigued when we heard about Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin. Smashed Pumpkin is Shipard Brewing's Imperial Pumpkin, and it's new for 2009. The beer pours a nice deep amber with a light head full of pumpkin and spice aroma. You can smell pumpkin and nutmeg right away almost reminiscent of pumpkin bread. At 9% abv you'd expect the alcohol to come through but it really doesn't. The malt and spices really help balance out the alcohol quite nicely. There's no doubt this is a big beer and it's definitely has an ideal temperature. When we poured the first glass right out of the fridge the spices were a bit too dominant and the beer just didn't feel balanced. After letting it warm up a bit though this beer opens up into something pretty special. A rich malty pumpkin sweetness finished off with dry nutmeg and a hint of hops. Fans of Southern Tier Pumpking and Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin should definitely give this a go.
As a quick side note this beer is excellent for cooking. I tossed some of the bottle in with some ground turkey, zucchini, portabella mushrooms and caramelized onions and it added an awesome depth of flavor to a quick dish.
