Robin Shepard
Pumpkin beers tend to elicit a love/hate, almost visceral reaction, from drinkers. A bold take on the style is The Lone Girl’s Double Trubbel Pumpkin Spice.
What is it? Double Trubbel Pumpkin Spice from Lone Girl Brewing in Waunakee.
Style: Pumpkin spiced beers often include the same flavors found in pumpkin pie — cinnamon, clove, ginger and nutmeg. A range of base beer styles are used to make pumpkin beer, though it’s most commonly ales like ambers, porters and weizens. With Double Trubbel, the background is a Belgian dubbel, a medium- to full-bodied, reddish to dark brown ale known for its own spicy sweetness and malty hints of chocolate and caramel. Dubbels also have distinctive yeasty qualities characterized by fruity esters of banana, raisin and plum.
Background: Lone Girl brewmaster John Russell Russell’s take on a Belgian dubbel is made with a touch of brown sugar, lending subtle molasses sweetness. It’s fermented with a Belgian yeast that adds dark fruit sweetness with hints of plum, raisin and cherry.
It turns into Double Trubbel Pumpkin Spice with the addition of about 120 pounds of pumpkin for a 10-barrel batch. “We use canned pumpkin because it’s easier to deal with,” says Russell. “The mash gets so thick with all that pumpkin it’s just crazy and it takes a long time to run off.”
Russell also adds a blend of allspice, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and ground mace. Those spices are added during brewing, as opposed to blending spices with fermented beer. It is lightly bittered with Golding hops, which ultimately are of little consequence next to the flavors from the spices.
Double Trubbel Pumpkin Spice finishes at 7.5 percent ABV. It’s sold in the brewpub for $6.50/glass, $18/growler (refill) and $10.50 for a 22-ounce bomber. The beer should be available into December.
Russell also has a limited amount of a barrel-aged version of this beer that he’s planning to release on tap in the brewpub and in bombers before the end of October. It’s actually last year’s Double Trubbel Pumpkin Spice, aged for nine months in J. Henry and Sons bourbon barrels.
Tasting notes:
- Aroma: Spicy hints of clove and nutmeg and along with light yeasty fruitiness.
- Appearance: Hazy amber-bronze color. A medium bubbly, off-white head.
- Texture: Medium-bodied, bubbly and soft.
- Taste: The cinnamon and cloves are up front and blend nicely with the dark fruity plum and cherry of the underlying Belgian dubbel.
- Finish/Aftertaste: The spices and soft yeasty fruitiness linger lightly on the palate.
Glassware: The tulip glass holds the bubbly head, while allowing the spicy aromas to gather under the nose.
Pairs well with: hearty beef and vegetable stews. Also great as the finish to the meal (as a dessert beer).
The Verdict: The Lone Girl’s Double Trubbel Pumpkin Spice is a solid example of a pumpkin beer; however, pumpkin beers are an acquired taste and I’m usually only good for about one glass or sharing a bomber. I am looking forward to trying the bourbon barrel aged version of this beer.
I likle the way the pumpkin spices and the fruity esters of the Belgian yeast all play off each other. Russell’s choice of a dubbel as the back beer is a good one. I also appreciate that this beer has pumpkin in it and not just spices. The actual pumpkin is far in the background, almost undetectable, yet there’s enough that is more than just a spiced beer. Overall, it’s a very flavorful pumpkin ale and for those who like these seasonal treats you’ll find this one right up your alley.
