Tap/Bottle: Bottle

While kids are terrorizing the streets dressed as zombies or Dick Cheney, create some terror of your own with Gritty’s Halloween Ale. Actually, the only thing that will scare you is how similar this ale tastes to others.

Having never tried anything by Gritty’s before, in retrospect, this may have been a bad first choice. If you want to get the full measure of a brewery, try one of their flagship beers, not a seasonal brew. Next time, I’ll heed my own advice.

Back to the beer at hand, this fall ale poured out nicely in a glass with a red/orange color. It smelled familiar, really familiar. Well, I decided to jump right in, and did I get a fright. I remember back in the day when I would get scared like that, a Snickers bar would fall in my bag. Instead, Sam Adam’s appeared wearing a cheap costume.

This Halloween Ale had a smoked caramel flavor to it that tasted almost identical to Sam Adam’s Octoberfest. I’m not sure what I was expecting; something unique would have been a nice surprise. I will say that the label idea is eye catching and made me want to read up on my Washington Irving.

Overall, this ale was fine; it wasn’t what I had in mind, though. Sadly, there are times when a lot of seasonal ales really do taste similar, and it is often too hard to distinguish the differences between them. This only means that at some point I’ll have to try another Gritty’s product to get the full spectrum of their line. If you seem to be stuck between this beer and a Snickers bar, remember, Snickers is the satisfier. Trick of treat!