Coronado Brewing Punk’in Drublic
I hadn’t planned on drinking a pumpkin beer until it was much cooler, if at all this year. Coronado Brewing, however, forced my hand by not only sending me a big pumpkin ale, but also naming it very similarly to my favorite NOFX album. Punk’in Drublic (not Punk in Drublic) is a 8% ABV brew that uses a pound of pumpkin puree per barrel along with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, brown sugar and honey. No mohawks or poorly-tuned guitars are to be found anywhere.
Despite my distaste for pumpkin beers the past couple of years, I actually do like pumpkin-based beer. I don’t like the amount of seasonal creep that occurs earlier and earlier each Summer/Fall and prefer the flavors of these types of beers during colder weather. That all said, Punk’in Drublic is a tasty brew that hits all the requisite marks for a pumpkin ale.
The brew has a good amount of pumpkin flavor and spices from start to finish. Thankfully, the spice blend isn’t overly present as brown sugar moves to the front of the class to join the pumpkin puree and a welcome honey character that comes out more as the beer sits longer in the glass.
Warming in the chest and with a lasting finish, this is a beer that would be perfectly enjoyed outdoors on a cool, crisp late-September evening. Then again, perhaps releasing the beer this early was planned from the start to go in conjunction with its name and to annoy craft drinkers long in the tooth like myself. How very punk of Coronado Brewing.
This is a review of a promotional sample.