619. DuClaw Brewing Co. (Ewing, NJ) - Sweet Baby Pumpkin!

“Nothing says fall is here like pumpkin spice lattes [sic] taking over every coffee shop in America. Now it’s taking over your favorite brewery too! The new addition to the ‘Sweet Baby’ family combines pumpkin spice flavor and notes of coffee in a smooth and creamy porter.”

(I’m not sure if this counts as a New Jersey beer or a Maryland beer, and I’m not going to waste your time with semantic quibbles. DuClaw [Rosedale, MD] was apparently acquired by River Horse [Ewing, NJ], but I’m not finding much in the way of useful information on either of their websites. I’m going with New Jersey, which makes it my first New Jersey beer and gets me to 32 states. If I have misapprehended the beer’s provenance, I will be glad to update the entry.)

Okay, and now that we have that shit out of the way, were we talking about a beer? Yes, we were; and there is some very nice pumpkin aroma on the nose, but everything else they are shooting for gets a little bit lost on the palate. I don’t really get much of any particular flavor, and the whole thing feels a little thin—even after it warms up.