To spoil things right away: this year’s version of Jack’s Pumpkin Spice Ale that I received is much better than last year’s.

Jack’s is brewed by Anheuser-Busch under the Michelob label, and it’s brewed with "farm-grown pumpkins, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves" to a 5.5% alcohol beer.

Appearance: Clear, bright orange, a thick off-white head.

Smell: Smells good—sweet and pumpkin pie spices, but not harsh.

Taste: Tastier than I remember—there’s a sweet malt base (Crystal malts is what I’m thinking, though there’s some hard candy sugar thing maybe too) and the spices accentuate it well—it seems like they’ve really dialed in the recipe. Not artificial like some I’ve had; well-balanced.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied, very clean (like all A-B products). A bit of a crisp edge.

Overall: Better than I remember, and a solid contender in the pumpkin beer category this year.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of C+. On RateBeer, it scores 2.67 out of 5, and is in their 22nd percentile.