Last night I had a lovely and surprisingly feminine evening of shopping, sewing, accordian playing and drinking with my wife and a friend of ours who is making our soon-to-be awesome Halloween costumes.
After retiring a decent bottle of Cotes du Rhone I ducked under an umbrella for some beer and cigarettes. The rain was falling in meters and the yellow orange leaves of the city street caught the proper gloss under the moon. I stepped through the tin-frame of the neighborhood liquor store to find our next victim.
I drifted from a local regular, to a semi-local treat before finally landing on New Holland’s seasonal Ichabod. Here’s how New Holland describes it on their site:
Ichabod combines malted barley and real pumpkin with cinnamon and nutmeg in a delicious and inviting brew. A rewarding complement to many dishes, Ichabod pairs well with autumnal foods such as poultry and root vegetables. After dinner, try it with your favorite dessert!
This is the first pumpkin ale I’ve tried that I would ever drink again, let alone drink more than one in a row. And drink them I did. Extremely well balanced, giving a crisp start and finish, the pumpkin and the spice is there only as a shadow, something to be conjured with the proper foods rather than something to be dampened down by another, less obnoxious, brew. The coloring was nice although the carbonation was a bit underwhelming, though this probably was because I was drinking it from a 12oz bottle. Not much of a smell and what was there was not much to write home about.
All in all, this, like most of New Holland’s portfolio, was a surprising and very drinkable beer, one I will certainly revisit before the season is over. And, if you’re looking to serve this with a meal, you can hit up New Holland’s pairing index to get some suggested recipes to serve Ichabod with. I think I’m going to try it with Dr. Pants Laroo’s Pumpkin Chili (I’ll post that recipe later) that me and the wife-o will be drawing out this weekend.