Jumpin Jack Pumpkin Ale from Tree Brewing Company

Sorry (to all one of you) for the delay in posts.  I was away to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with my husband and our friends in Victoria, BC!  As this isn't a vacation blog I won't say much about it other than it was a fantastic time and despite that the city looked virtually nothing like I'd imagined it, it was gorgeous and I'd move there in a heartbeat (although I'm not sure I'd ever get over how damned expensive alcohol is up north... jeez).

Okay, anyway.  On with the beer!  I figured while I was up there I might as well review something seasonal and semi-local, so I picked up something out of Kelowna (southern interior of BC).

Brewer:  Tree Brewing Company
Location:  Kelowna, BC
Name of Brew:  Jumpin Jack Pumpkin Ale
Manufacturer's Description: none specific for this seasonal
ABV:  7.0%

Color
Uh oh... this is a brown ale.  I guess I should have realized, given that it's a 7.0% ale touted as "strong", but for some reason I was caught off-guard by it's darker copper-brown color.  Oh well... can't judge a book by it's cover, right?  I am not the world's biggest brown ale fan but I am determined to give this one a fair review.

Head
Head!!! So much head!!!  Seriously, almost an inch of tannish colored head formed immediately out of the bottle.  I guess the color was kind of like an earthy potato-flesh color (not the skin).  Also observed decent head retention as it took nearly two full minutes for the head to dissipate.

Aroma
Very earthy aroma with a bit of sourness to it.  Nothing obviously standing out here for me as pumpkin spice but there's some other scents at play here that I can't seem to put my finger on.  Alas, maybe it's just the smell of malt or yeast and I haven't quite mastered how to pick out those smells yet.  Anyway, moving on...

Taste
Early palette  Not much carbonation fizz, but not flat tasting either.  The carbonation is clearly there but the bubbles aren't hitting my tongue in that obvious "this is really carbonated!" way.
Middle palette  Heading straight into a deep, earthy flavor very much like the other brown ales I've had the (dis)pleasure of tasting during my drinking career.  It feels heavy on the tongue with indistinct and fleeting pumpkin flavor.
Late palette The pumpkin flavor here is already gone... it probably only lasted a second or less - just when you realize you think you're tasting pumpkin, it's gone again.  Not detecting a lot of pumpkin spices either, and it finishes with a dark, nutty flavor.

Overall
Well, I typically don't like brown ales, and this was no exception.  I don't think it's fair to say it was bad just because it's not my personal cup of tea - to someone who enjoys a darker brew (without venturing into porter and stout territory) this might have been fantastic.  It was one of the more exciting-looking beers based solely on the fact that it actually had a good amount of head and looked nice out of the bottle, but it's not something that I would buy again.  I can see how its heavy-ish flavor and sipping quality could be a nice complement to the cool, crisp Fall weather, but the pumpkin was too weak and fleeting, and too easily dominated by the other earthy flavors coming through on the tongue for me to be happy with it as a seasonal offering.