Uinta Pumpkin Ale Review - Time of the Season
I have been visiting Utah on and off for many years as a good friend moved to the US and settled there. Given how deeply religious Utah is generally viewed to be, I was originally surprised by the quality of the Utah beer scene and specifically the number of craft breweries around Salt Lake City. As time has gone on I have grown to not over simplify it, and just enjoy everything I get to sample on my visits there, even finding some all time favourites (if you’re reading this site in order, that’s what we call foreshadowing). There are many smaller craft breweries doing great work, but also some that have broken out and become both regional and even national names. Our subject today, Uinta brewing, lies somewhere in between.
Uinta Brewing Company was founded in 1993 by Will Hamill, a geologist and general outdoorsman, and his business partner, Kevin Ely. The company is named for the mountain range that runs through Utah and the only east-west mountain range in the mainland US. Aiming no doubt to be as unique and distinguished as those mountains, the brewery is known for its commitment to environmental sustainability, becoming the first business in Utah entirely powered from renewables in 2001.Going on to become an early B Corp, their efforts to reduce their carbon footprint and protect the environment may resonate with many, though Uinta are equally as comfortable to let the beer speak for them.
Uinta offers a solid core range of beers, with names inspired by its founder's love of Utah's natural beauty, landscapes, surroundings and wildlife. Uinta’s Cutthroat Pale Ale is their flagship beer, named for the state fish of Utah, the Colorado River cutthroat trout. But the brewery also offers a range of IPA, stouts and lager including the delightfully piney Hop Nosh IPA, their Baba Black Lager, as well as several Pilsner and Hefeweizen in their year round line up. They also do a range of seasonal ales with quite wide regional distribution. Uinta have won several awards for their beer, taking medals at the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup. Now in their 30th year, the brewery is both a strongly established local name, but still a respectable underdog in their national expansion.
Recently I went to Salt Lake to visit my friend before he leaves the state on a new adventure, so what else was there to do but celebrate with some beers? As we pass the harvest season and into the Autumn, or Fall (take your pick), the obvious answer was to commit to a small box of Uinta’s seasonal Pumpkin Ale. A beer that could encapsulate not only the year changing, but the change of direction the whole visit was based around.
The beer itself is aromatic from the moment you open a can. Cinnamon and maybe nutmeg herald the season and bring a sense of warmth. Colourwise you're first greeted by a thick gentle off white foam with an almost brown/orange hue you might expect, but this dissipates quickly. Then the beer pours with a clear, amber, almost copper tone that builds up in the glass to be darker than I’d expected. The first taste can be a surprise, but what should you expect but a hit of sweet, earthy almost roasted squash? It’s not an overly sweet beer though, the pumpkin is balanced against a malt forward deepness with a gentle bitter back. It has a moderate carbonation and a perfect thickness, striking a very drinkable, comfortable middle ground. Once accustomed to the initial taste, the beer goes down very smoothly leaving a lingering spice on the tongue and, personally I think I would have been disappointed if I had only had one can.
At 5% Uinta Pumpkin Ale is a solid beer with a simple confidence and is uncomplicated by presentation or promotion of the brewery it comes from. While many breweries bring a pumpkin beer among their seasonal offerings, I think it could be easy to overlook the quality of the Uinta offering amongst a sea of louder, fussier drinks that simply aren’t quite as gourd (I apologise, I had to).
Unita Pumpkin Ale season is coming to an end, the beers sampled were canned in mid August 2023, but it is regionally available in the US and may potentially be found in the UK and Europe through some importers. All Uinta’s beers are believed to be vegan as of time of writing.
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Written by Mark Charles Adams.
You can follow Mark on Untappd and occasionally on other social media @threeseventytwo
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