St Ambroise Citrouille – McAuslan Brewing Inc

It’s pumpkin weekend at my place, at least in terms of beer.  Friday Fred and I drank pumpkin beer on the Edge, yesterday I reviewed Shipyard’s ferocious Imperial Pumpkin Ale, “Smashed Pumpkin”.  Today, I’m going to do a review of one of the pumpkin beers that helped convert me to a fan of pumpkin beers, St Ambroise Citrouille by McAuslan Brewing, or “The Great Pumpkin”, as they call it in English markets.  It should come as no surprise that it was a McAuslan beer that helped hold my hand over the threshold into the glorious mansion of pumpkin beers.  I’m a huge fan of both McAuslan’s Oatmeal Stout, and their incredible Pale Ale.  Their Apricot Wheat beer, while not my favourite, is a really well-respected fruit beer, and Citrouille is a standard in the LCBO every fall, and a regular in my beer fridge this time of year.

St Ambroise Citrouille - McAuslan Brewing Inc

St Ambroise Citrouille - McAuslan Brewing Inc

From a 341ml bottle with a best-before date on the back label, St Ambroise Citrouille pours a dark coppery brown, with a small foamy head that drops to a film and leaves a little lace towards the top of the glass.  Aroma is, unsurprisingly, pumpkin.  Sweet and rich, there is also a notable malt sweetness; something caramelly, almost hints of molasses.  This sweetness is complemented by the usual pie spices, there’s definitely nutmeg and clove, though none of the spices are particularly prominent, just a nice spicy undertone to compliment the lovely pumpkin smell.  Taste is immediately savoury pumpkin, some sweetness, both from the squash and also from the caramelly malts, with add a slight biscuity touch to the flavour.  There is a nice hop dryness across the palate, and perhaps a slightly spicy note, though that could be the actual spices.  These show up on the mid palate, again, none of the individual spices popping, just a nice pie-like spice, which is reduced somewhat towards the end, but does linger with the pumpkin through the hop-dry finish.  While visually the carbonation does not appear particularly active, the beer is bubbly, nearly prickly on the tongue, providing an effervescence that is bright in comparison to the rich pumpkin and warm spices.  The body is light to medium, without the weight you might expect from a sweeter beer.  A lovely ale for the fall days, it would go wonderfully with a turkey dinner, or sitting bundled-up in a hoodie in from of your computer.  Just lovely.

Sante McAuslan!

Listen to me talking with Fred and Raina on the Edge about this beer, other pumpkin-related stuff, and ummm, stuff….
http://www.edge.ca/Blogs/FearlessFred/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10295901

About the Brewery

St Ambroise - McAuslan LogoMcAuslan Brewing began operations in January of 1989. Located at 4850 St-Ambroise Street in Montreal’s St-Henri district, it has established itself as Quebec’s foremost micro-brewery.

The brewery launched its first beer in February 1989. St-Ambroise Pale Ale was an immediate success. Its distinctive hoppy-ness and clear reddish hue set it apart and gained it an instant following. Shortly after, McAuslan Brewing became the first micro-brewery to offer its product in bottles.

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

*
*

Subscribe without commenting