Central Waters Headless Heron

This seasonal release is from the Central Waters Brewing Company of Amherst, Wisconsin. Just like with Oktoberfests, I thought I was done with pumpkin beers for the season, but when I saw this, I knew I wanted to try it. It is an ale with nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves and then aged in used bourbon barrels. Good thing bourbon is also so popular, or there would never be enough barrels for all the craft beers that are being barrel-aged right now.

The beer pours a very dark mahogany brown to black in color, tints of dark ruby. The beer was pouring with a short head, so I poured more aggressively, and then it almost foamed over. The head is thick, foamy, and tan in color. The aroma is spices, darkened sugar, light pumpkin, light bourbon, ginger snap cookies, and molasses cookies. The taste follows the aromas, adding in light coffee notes. This beer drinks like eating holiday cookies (pumpkin cookies, molasses cookies and ginger snap cookies, all at once), while simultaneously sipping bourbon and drinking a mild coffee. There are also some dark cherry flavors that come through. This beer makes an interesting take on the pumpkin beer style.