Pumpkin Beers

After reading through the thread about the Octoberfest seasonals, I thought I would bring up favorite pumpkin beers, which I really enjoy.

At this moment I am enjoying a Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale, it is very tasty and very spicy, but the pumpkin flavors are very subtle. After this one, plan on cracking a Smuttynose Pumpkin which I haven't tried yet.

My two go to Pumpkin beers are Dogfish Head's "Punkin" and Souther Tier's Pumking. For a great drink mix 2/3 Pumpking with 1/3 Souther Tier's Creme Brulee stout for a chocolate pumpkin pie dessert beer.

I did not enjoy New Holland's Ichabod Pumpkin Ale (too bad as the name is cool) and I am waiting to try Wollaver's Will Steven's Pumpkin Ale, and Post Road Pumpkin Ale.

I've had a couple that I like, but the only one I remember at present is Capitol City Brewing's (a D.C. brewery) version. Thanks for the fine suggestion for the weekend!

Dogfish Head's is always a perennial favorite at my place. We just started to get Southern Tier around here last year, and their pumpkin (as well as most of their other bombers) are amazing.

IMO, don't bother with Post Road. If you like the spice, stick with the others... post road is rather pathetic in comparison. Smuttynose is also usually tasty, as is Stoudt's (which unfortunately has been tough to find here in the past few years).

a quick update, this smuttynose was very good imho. good pumpkin flavor and not a "spice bomb" like the weyerbacher.

Another to try is Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale. Very good.

out of the pumpkin beers i have tried, i really like
saranac pumpkin ale
harvest moon(maker's of blue moon)
however just for a guide check this out
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/style/72

Everyone seems to go gaga for seasonal pumpkin and Christmas beers. Even over on the homebrew forum. I just can't get into spiced beers (except for Witbier). I did make a pumpkin beer with a Scottish Ale base wich was pretty good. I guess I'll have to pick one up just to say I did. I'm leaning toward the DFH, or Weyerbacher. Too bad the New Holland isn't good. I usually like their beer.

While I have never tried one, the idea of pumpkin beer does not appeal to me, at all.

Tim

ratcheer said:

While I have never tried one, the idea of pumpkin beer does not appeal to me, at all.

Tim

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Most breweries use some pumpkin in the mash. The biggest part of pumpkin beer are the spices though. Traditional pumpkin pie spices are usually used (ginger, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg). I'm not sure how much pumpkin flavor really passes. Obviously, you would use sweet baking pumpkin, not a Jack O' Lantern pumpkin.

I bought the Sam Adams Winter assortment, last year. It did not have the pumpkin ale (that had been in the Fall packing), but I did not care for many of them. I guess I just want beer to taste like beer. Maybe its just me.

Tim

The Southern Tier "Pumking" is one of my favorite seasonal beers of all time. Alpine Brewing also makes a great pumpkin beer all Ichabod.

ratcheer said:

I guess I just want beer to taste like beer.

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I am not trying to be jerky or be a troll by any stretch of the imagination
but Beer Advocate lists 103 different style of beer alone each with very different flavor profiles/characteristics.

MacArthur Mike said:

I am not trying to be jerky or be a troll by any stretch of the imagination
but Beer Advocate lists 103 different style of beer alone each with very different flavor profiles/characteristics.

Click to expand...

Ok, its cool with me.

Tim

Nevermind any of that other stuff, I want that Creme Brule stout. That sounds like heaven in a glass.

Picked up some Dogfish Head Punkin after I saw it listed in this thread...I love their beers. It's fantastic. Thanks for the recommendation. Living in SoCal this time of year I find myself longing for some fall...this definitely helped!

Ben

I had the creme brule stout and it was quite a let-down.... Burnt-sugar sweetness was about all the character that it had (and way too much at that)..... Get a Young's double chocolate stout... Not too sweet and very smooth....

My local 'haunt' has an amazing beer selection... I would say that on a conservative estimate,, I have had over 400 different kinds of beer in there... They do a 'passport' and I have a bit over 350 different beers stamped in it (and I haven't brought that book with me in over a year)...

I can't recall which 'pumpkin' beer it was,,, but it was the worst thing I ever had in a pint... It tasted like those terrible popcorn flavored jelly-belly things... I gave it to the bartenders to dump down the drain (only time in my life that this has happened)... I think it was Post Road,, Ichabod,, or southern tier.... They will have it on tap again and I'll taste it so I get the brewer correct....

Smuttynose was one of my favorite pumpkins....

The worst thing I ever sampled in there was a watermelon beer that smelled like rotten used prophylactics and tasted worse than attempting to imagine what that description would do to the tastebuds.... Apparently the brewers use a lot of real watermelon to make the beer,, and I'll give them credit for doing that with such a small operation,,, but I couldn't drink that stuff if someone paid me....

I bought a few different Pumpkin Beers today...

Im on my first Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale... Pretty tasty, nice flavor not too spicy or sweet. Nice all around flavor.

Dog Fish Pumpkin is next =)

I asked the bartender and that awful pumpkin was made by "Southern Tier"....

Ok, I had some DogFish Punkin. Not bad but so far I enjoyed the Imperial Pumpkin Ale better.

Today I will try the Saranc...

I recently started going to a place called BJ's Brewhouse. As the name implies they brew their own beer. They have a seasonal October pumpkin beer which is AMAZING. Now I want some...