It’s always fun to try your first beer from a new (or new to you) brewery. And when that brewery comes as highly toutedas Stratford, Connecticut’s Two Roads Brewing Company, well that’s a special day indeed. Hence, I give you Roadsmary’s Baby, an ale brewed with pumpkin and spices aged in rum barrels with vanilla beans.

Really and truly this is my first Two Roads beer, though it isn’t my first beer produced in their facility. Evil Twin contracts brewing of several of their beers to Two Roads; so far I’ve tasted the Lil B, Yin, and Yang brewed there. This past September saw me take an epic journey from Georgia to Maine (where I traveled on a lot more than two roads). Passing along 95 in the Stratford, I did see a large billboard for Two Roads brewing. Would that I could have stopped, but I had to make Rhode Island that day. I did manage to get a few Two Roads beers at Haxton’s in Warwick, though, one fo the being the Roadsmary’s Baby.

Two Roads says of Roadsmary’s Baby on their website:

Fall seasonal. Released in August in six pack bottles and draft

Roadsmary’s Baby is a traditional pumpkin ale with a Two Roads spin, it's aged in rum barrels for added complexity and depth of flavor. The result is a smooth drinking ale with notes of pumpkin, spices, vanilla, oak and a touch of rum.

Two Roads Roadsmary’s Baby has an alcohol content of 6.8% by volume and I paid $9.99 for a six-pack. My cans were packaged on July 22, 2015. The brewery describes the beer as a “Scary-Good Pumpkin Ale”.

Two Roads Roadsmarys Baby pours to a bright orange color with a soft fizzy head and a truly luscious nose of pumpkin spice, vanilla, and rum. Taking a sip the beer has medium caramel malt up front followed by an explosion of spice and then to a lesser degree squashy stringy pumpkin notes. Cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, ginger, and vanilla all intermingle with a hint of rich rumminess. The finish is quite dry with nutmeg spice and begs for another sip.

This is a very nicely done pumpkin beer and I think the rum aging is what separates it from the pack. This is the second-best new pumpkin beer I've tried this year after Burnt Hickory Die Kreuzen, though it does take first place for coolest name.

Certainly a beer I’ll buy again-if I find myself traveling all those roads to New England again next year.

Update 10/17/2020: I haven't been back to New England since 2015, though not for lack of desire. This year, though, I did manage to score a fresh can of Roadsmary's Baby from Craftshack.com for $3.99. It's stamped PKGD 31JUL20.

Two Roads Roadsmary’s Baby pours to a deep amber color with a thick creamy head and a lush nose of pumpkin, ginger, vanilla and spice. Taking a sip, the beer is full in body and flows luxuriously over the tongue. The palate is gently rummy, rich with vanilla, a pinch of clove, nutmeg, cinnamon and pumpkin. The beer finishes spicy dry. This is excellent, just as I recall it. It really is scary good, and I'm afraid i erred by not getting a few cans. I'll just hop on over to Craftshack and see if they have any more. It really is an amazing pumpkin ale.

And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled

(D)=Draft

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