Lively, crisp, easygoing Halloween treat brings luxurious pumpkin pie spicing to mild honeyed barley backbone. Cinnamon-toasted gingerbread, nutmeg, coriander and allspice decorate sweet-seasoned medium-bodied fare. Vanilla, sassafras and sugared yam illusions make cameos.

Nearly perfect pumpkin-spiced medium body (circa 2012) maintains crisp composure and nifty pumpkin-spiced sparkle. Advertised cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and clove elegantly season rum-spiced caramel malt creaming. Sugary dried-fruited fig, raisin, plum and black cherry undertones soften beneath cinnamon-toasted pumpkin pie theme. Fizzy carbolic briskness adds crystalline sparkle.   

Nasty contract brewed version is completely indistinguishable and cheaply mass-produced. Nominal pumpkin spicing lost amongst carbolic phenol spicing and dreary candied malting. The worst updated recipe since Blue Point Toasted Lager. Useless.

Rambunctious pumpkin pie spicing prevails for limited edition autumnal medium body in eye-catching orange bottle. Brown-sugared cinnamon, gingerbread, nutmeg and allspice nuances partially relinquished by sweet potato pie vibe. Vegetal gourd, squash, yam and zucchini astringency rides shotgun.

Compelling autumnal full body tastes like a scrumptious pumpkin-spiced gingerbread cookie with whipped cream topping. Sweet mulling-spiced pumpkin pie midst never relents as nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice rush to the top alongside the ancillary Marachino cherry uprising, pushing this 2012 limited release to great heights. Bawdy boozers will welcome its sharp grain alcohol snip.

Dryer and more alcohol burnt (8%) than most stylistic competitors, 2012 autumnal seasonal takes sinewy gourd-spiced bittering to whiskey-licked medicinal-candied finish. Metallic astringency absorbs nutmeg, allspice, ginger and cinnamon spicing plus slight vegetal whim. Serve to open-minded British bitter imbibers during Octoberfest as a musky alternative.

On tap at Shepherd & Knucklehead, unspecific 2012 version places crisp hop sharpness above subdued autumnal gourd expectancy and wispy lemon-salted phenol spicing. Light crystal malting never sweetens enough to contrast musty earthen leathering and vegetal squash-pumpkin simmer. Moldy fig, pecan, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardomom illusions barely register below the haphazard mix.