Uinta Brewing is a Utah-based brewer that’s popped up on my radar recently—at least under the “Uinta” label. I have a bottle of their barleywine in my fridge (found at the Bier Stein in Eugene) and found their Punk’n Harvest Pumpkin Ale here in Bend this year. (They also apparently brew the “Crooked Line” series of beers that come in the 750ml corked bottles, and the “Four+” line of organice beers—both of which I thought were separate companies for some reason.)

What’s interesting to me is the fact that they are a Utah brewery, where in-state alcohol limitations cap beers at 3.2% alcohol by weight (4% by volume), yet they are brewing high-strength beers to ship out of state. Punk’n, however, is an exception, being exactly 4% by volume. It follows the “template” for a “classic” pumpkin ale pretty closely.

Appearance: Amber-orange color, relatively clear; off-white head.

Smell: Spices are prominent, followed closely by sweet sugary aromas—fairly pie-like. A bit of toasty malt adds a graham crackery aroma that makes me think “pie crust.”

Taste: Malty with a spice bite: cinnamon and maybe allspice prominently. The spices seem to dry it out, in fact. Pleasant sweetness in the malts and there is a bit of that caramel-vegetable pumpkin character.

Mouthfeel: Nicely medium-bodied with a spicy-dry lingering finish.

Overall: Nice pumpkin ale, pleasant and spicy and brewed in the “classic” (pumpkin pie/spiced) vein. Enjoyable and worth picking up.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of C+. On RateBeer, it scores 3.07 out of 5 and is in their 52nd percentile.