The journey for the perfect pumpkin ale rages on! Today we check out the Punk’In Drublic from Coronado Brewing. Coronado Brewing is located, you guessed it, in Coronado. Coronado, California to be exact. I’ve never been to Coronado, but I Googled it and I want to go. Like right now. Seriously, click on the link up there and check out the map. I’ll wait…

…

Yeah, now you want to go too. We should all head down for the Catalina Wine Mixer!

Anyway, Coronado Brewing has been around for about 20 years and they make a ton of different beers. For real. Check out their website. I’m actually sipping on the Orange Avenue Wit while I’m writing this. It’s quite good.

The Punk’In Drublic is part of their Crown Series and is available during the fall months. They also produce a Barrel Aged version as part of the Coronado Collection. The 2015 Coronado edition was aged in bourbon barrels and it looks like the 2014 version was aged in brandy barrels. I’m going have to track down the 2015 version.

Punk'in-Drublic-Coronado-Brewing — The mermaid in the Coronado Brewing logo references a local legend.

Coronado Brewing Punk’In Drublic

Style: Pumpkin Ale

ABV: 8%

IBU: 35

Hops: Nugget

Malts: 2-Row,Biscuit, C-45, C-77

Additional ingredients: Brown Sugar, Honey, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Allspice, Pumpkin

Availability: Seasonal (August – November)

MSRP: $8.49 – 22 oz bottles

Brewer: Coronado Brewing – Coronado, CA

Beers consumed for review: 1 – 22 oz bottle

Punk'in-Drublic-Coronado-Brewing-Pumpkin — Isn’t that the ugliest pumpkin you’ve ever seen?

Nose: The aroma on the Punk’In Drublic was sweet, sweet, sweet. Notes of sweet honey and jammy blackberry (where did that come from?) were upfront while a mild pumpkin note settled in the background. I anticipated some spice on the nose, but found none.

Appearance: The beer was crystal clear and dark amber in color. It poured with almost no head.

Flavor: This one had a very boozy flavor to it. After a few sips I went back to the bottle to see if I somehow grabbed the barrel aged version. Big notes of pumpkin pie spice and burnt caramel dominated the palate. There was a surprising amount of bitterness as well. The mouthfeel was heavy and the flavors lingered on the palate. Despite the heavy flavors, the finish was clean and didn’t linger too long.

Overall Thoughts: The Punk’In Drublic is the most complex pumpkin ales that I have had to date. It tasted as though it was aged in bourbon barrels for a week or so before bottling. It wasn’t, but it had that kind of heavy flavor. It was a perfect fall evening beer. I like a bigger beer, so this was one right up my ally. It was nice and malty, without going overboard. I’m diggin’ what Coronado is doing. I’ll have to check out more of their stuff.