Lighthouse is a brewery from Victoria, BC, and this is their seasonal pumpkin-infused brew, with extra milk sugar, it would seem.

This 650ml bottle pours a clear, bright medium copper amber hue, with one thick finger of puffy, bubbly, and loosely foamy beige head, which leaves some low-lying headland lace around the glass as it genially subsides.

It smells of sharp, zingy seasonal spices – metallic cinnamon, ginger, clove, and nutmeg – crackery caramel malt, and very subtle vegetal pumpkin flesh notes. The taste is more of the same – kind of tinny, almost chemical-esque spices, the very same ones from the nose, in the interest of not repeating myself – a more sturdy bready caramel malt, hints of oily nuts, an even further lessened pumpkin essence, and leafy, weedy, and earthy hops.

The bubbles are pretty understated in their merely frivolous burbling, the body on the light side of medium weight, and plainly smooth, if that, a general pithiness arising as it warms. It finishes mostly dry, the ethereally pumpkin-tinged caramel malt wilting in the face of the lingering stoney spice, and unexpected alcohol twinges.

Sure, this has got a modicum of seasonal affectation and affliction, but it isn’t of the sort to put a smile on a (grown-up) child’s face, as it were. Underwhelmingly straight and dry (where went the lactose, one must wonder), and not really representative of the equivalent pie experience of note. Not a bad beer, really, but failing current and yet fleeting expectations gets you nowhere now, man.