Welcome to what is the start of what will (hopefully!) be a
very long list of pumpkin beers sampled this fall and their relative
rankings. This is intended to be a
living, breathing post, as I continue to update throughout the months of
October and November.
The criteria is far from scientific; it’s essentially
whether I like them or not, and the list is by no means supposed to be
all-inclusive. It’s a list of beers that
I’ve tried this fall and a ranking of those I found particularly good. And, for fairness’s sake, I am only including
those that were given an honest chance.
For instance, I recently tried the Schafly Pumpkin while out at the
Cloverleaf with a group of people from work.
Given that it was one of many that evening and I was not taking any
notes, it would be unfair to give it a proper review on the blog since I honestly can't tell you what it tasted like.
My hope is that at the very least, if you’re standing in
front of the cooler at your local beer shoppe, overwhelmed by the options in
front of you, that this guide can at least help you choose one over another.
The guide is broken up into two sections - "Winners" are those that you should grab if you have the chance. "Losers" are best to be avoided unless you're short on other options. And, of course, you should always try something new if you have the chance!
Winners
Stevens Point Whole
Hog Pumpkin Ale (Pumpkin Ale)
Stevens Point, Wisconsin
7.5% ABV
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| A new winner! |
If you only try one pumpkin beer this fall, this would be
it. This tastes like all the best flavours
of post-Thanksgiving dinner – pumpkin, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, caramel,
brown sugar, and nutmeg (do I even taste some vanilla ice cream in there?) –
blended down and consumable in convenient, alcoholic form. This beer took home the gold at the Great
American Beer Festival in 2012 and followed it up with another gold medal at
the World Beer Championships in 2013, with good reason: this is what other pumpkin
beers should aspire to taste like. After
finishing my first four-pack during NFL kick-off weekend, I immediately ran out
and bought another just to have a couple bottles to hang on to for a special occasion.
What really stands out in this beer is the way the flavours
work in harmony with one another; there’s no one overpowering the others here,
just a perfect blend with just right amount of creaminess. The alcohol content won’t floor you after one
(which is good, because you’ll gladly drink another) and the price is
reasonable ($10-12 for a 4-pack of 12 oz bottles). Combine these together and we have a new
winner for 2014!
Southern Tier Pumking
(Pumpkin Ale)
Lakewood, New York
8.6% ABV
I may be setting myself up for disappointment every year
when the new Pumking arrives – perhaps it was a matter of scarcity when I was
living in Chicago, but I could not get enough of this stuff in the
Midwest. Liquor stores used to sell
bottles via a “one per customer” rule and would refuse to even have any on the
shelf, requiring customers “in the know” ask for a Pumking before they would be
given a bottle. With that kind of
introduction to a beer, you know it has to be something special.
I’ve actually turned to hoarding Pumking – there are several
bottles from 2013 buried around my house under beds and in the back of the
fridge waiting for the right time to drink.
This year I was ecstatic to find that it was available by the case, and
made the long march home from the liquor store lugging over $100 of pumpkin
beer in my arms.
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| A rather unnecessary (but very worthwhile) splurge |
That said, the 2014 iteration of the Pumking was not quite
what I remembered from the last two years. It’s always been a hearty,
traditional-style ale with a beautiful colour and presence that’s hard to
beat. Maybe it’s the ubiquity of other
pumpkin ales crowding the market, but the flavours just seemed less pronounced
this time around.
The relatively high ABV has always made this beer more a
“once in a while” than a good sipping beer, so my case might well last me
through Christmas (and that’s not to say my opinion on this brew might change once
it gets colder!). A 22oz bottle of this
stuff racks in at nearly 500 calories, so you may want to go easy on the
stuffing if you’re planning to have one with your Thanksgiving dinner.
All in all, the 2014 Pumking is still good enough for a top
showing, but for 2014 at least, it has lost its spot on the throne to the Whole Hog.
Traveler Beer Company
Jack-O Traveler (Pumpkin Shandy)
Burlington, Vermont (Note: Beer is brewed out of state)
4.4% ABV
The Jack-O-Traveler is a new one for me this year,
introduced by the ever-popular Cloverleaf Tavern (by far the best craft beer
bar in New Jersey, and possibly the world).
I’m a little confused by the Traveler Beer Company, which claims to be
from Vermont but contracts out brewing out of state (typically a red flag) but
this shandy-style beer makes enough of an impression that I’m willing to look past
the questionable nature of the company.
This beer claims and tastes like a shandy, but is actually a
wheat beer infused with pumpkin spices.
Almost the polar opposite of Pumking and Whole Hog in terms of colour,
flavour, and mouthfeel, I would have expected to hate this beer right from the
start. However, one sip had me
hooked. The beer is (as expected)
extremely light and fruity; it almost has a citrus vibe to it that is totally
unexpected from a pumpkin beer. The
pumpkin flavour is definitely there, but it’s much an afterthought in the way
that lemons are the afterthought in a traditional shandy.
This is the perfect beer for the rare 80-degree days in late
September/early October when you can still tailgate in short sleeves. At 4.4% ABV and just over 140 calories per
bottle you can drink them all day long and still afford to eat (and actually
remember doing so) that second stadium brat during the fourth quarter.
Dogfish Head Punkin
Ale (Pumpkin Ale)
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
7.0% ABV
Dogfish Head once again ups the ante with a strong showing
for 2014. Despite me being on the East
Coast this fall, this beer has been surprisingly difficult to find this year –
outside of Dogfish tap takeovers, I have not seen this on the shelves at any of
the usual liquor stores in town or on tap at any of the bars nearby. Maybe they are creating some kind of
artificial scarcity, but that just makes me that much more inclined to drink it
when I do find it.
The Punkin has never been the most heavy of beers, and
compared to a lot of the rest of their lineup it is actually one of the lighter
offerings when served side by side at the tap takeover events. The pumpkin flavour is not so much “in your
face” as some of the others on this list – it’s a beer first and foremost, and
only at the finish is the pumpkin flavour evident. This is a good one to grab if you can
actually find it.
Losers
Southern Tier Warlock
(American Double/Imperial Stout)
Lakewood, New York
8.6% ABV
It’s not really fair to call this a pumpkin beer per se, as it’s really an extremely dark
and heavy stout that also has some pumpkin thrown in as well. However, because the label shows a
jack-o-lantern, it’s getting counted as a pumpkin for purposes of this review.
This beer is kind of the polar opposite of Pumking
(considering both a dark pumpkin beers brewed by Southern Tier). Whereas the Pumking masks its ABV behind an
impressive blend of flavours, the Warlock tastes very boozy and has a dark, foreboding character about it.
The body on the Warlock is actually lighter than you might
expect from an imperial stout, but as soon as you finish a first sip you know
you aren’t going to be able to put down more than two without putting yourself
to sleep. The pumpkin flavour comes in
very later, almost like an aftertaste after you’ve swished the beer around in
your mouth and swallowed. Maybe I’m
biased against stouts in general, but there just seems to be too much going on
in this beer and the pumpkin was thrown in as an afterthought. This beats several of the other “losers”
because it is still a high quality brew, but if my choices were this beer and
an unknown new pumpkin side by side I might take my chances with the other
option.
Otter Creek Brewing
Wolaver’s Organic Pumpkin Ale
Middlebury, Vermont
5.35% ABV
Oh, Wolaver’s. How I
wanted to love you! Wolaver’s makes one of our favourite shandies that has been
a staple in our fridge most of the summer.
Add in the fact that all of their beers are made with local and organic
ingredients, and you can understand the excitement when we saw their Organic
Pumpkin Ale on the shelf.
Sadly, that excitement quickly left after we tried the
beer. The flavour of pumpkin is very
faint in this beer – it’s alright in and of itself, but there’s only vaguely a
pumpkin or spice character to it. Surprisingly,
it is actually less flavourful than the Traveler shandy reviewed above, which
shouldn’t be the case considering this is billed as pumpkin ale. I think the best word to describe the entire
beer is “thin” – the flavour is lacking, the mouthfeel is very watery and
light, and really just doesn’t stand out in any way. Otter Creek is a relatively young brewery, so
hopefully their Organic Pumpkin continues to improve and we’ll see a more
interesting blend in 2015.
