2014 Top Pumpkin Beer List

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

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.

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. 

Ebola Highlights the Risks of a Global Chocolate Supply Chain

While Ebola itself is unlikely to travel to the United States any time soon, Ebola represents a significant threat to the global supply chain that may start to hit your pocketbook.

Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea represent the epicentre of the outbreak, and recent strife has seen the borders closed and flights halted from neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire over the last several months.  To date, the Ivory Coast has had no confirmed infections, but expectations are that the disease will continue to spread and may make the jump over the border in the next few months.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

While the economic toll of the virus has been calamitous for the local populations in the three most stricken countries, they are by and large isolated from much of the West.  All three are post-war economies whose exports are largely based around agricultural trade with their neighbours.

Côte d’Ivoire also suffered a civil war in 2011, but despite its political upheaval has been one of the success stories of modern Africa. It is the fourth largest exporter of goods in sub-Saharan Africa, and, potentially more worrying for chocolate lovers, is the world’s top producer of cocoa beans.  Together with its neighbour Ghana, the two nations represent over 55% of world production of the bean.   South America, by comparison, only represents a little over 10% of the globe’s chocolate.  This means even the slightest disruption in farmers' ability to bring cocoa to market could have massive ripple effects for chocolate across the world.

Country	Amount produced	Percentage of world production
Côte d'Ivoire	1.23 million tons	34.7%
Indonesia	489 thousand tons	13.8%
Ghana	746 thousand tons	20.6%
Cameroon	220 thousand tons	5.9%
Nigeria	210 thousand tons	5.9%
Brazil	165 thousand tons	4.7%
Ecuador	130 thousand tons	3.7%
Malaysia	32 thousand tons	0.9%

With ebola continuing to spread unabated, the risk for infection and its impact to the Côte d’Ivoire economy has the futures market for cocoa skyrocketing.  According to this morning’s LA Times, hedge funds are jumping into the game and prices have been increasing for 6 straight months, the longest such streak in over a decade. 

Prices are not quite to the peak hit in early 2011, but this kind of  run-up in prices on the wholesale will soon begin to make its way to the retail sector, meaning that next bar of Dairy Milk could soon set you back quite a bit more than you expected.  This will be something to keep an eye on, as many of the major packaged food companies (Nestle, Hershey, Mondelez) have large chocolate businesses that could be at risk.  Even in the last few years we have see what coffee prices have done to their bottom lines - will chocolate be the next "ugly duckling" to drag down sector growth?  

Investors may need to start keeping much closer tabs on the virus if it begins an eastward expansion over the coming months to avoid unnecessary exposure to what appears to be a huge spike in prices.  It all goes to show that when it comes to devastating diseases like Ebola, in the interconnected modern world there's no such thing as an isolated outbreak. 

The BRIC Risk

 “Living on the edge” is the name of the game when it comes to chasing topline growth in the modern world, and that means doing business in volatile emerging markets.  Too much volatility – war zones, crime-ridden areas, corruption – can put a stop to that, so companies have focused on countries that are slightly more developed but provide high growth.

The big name in that space is BRIC – the large, similarly developed economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China.  They are supposed to represent the ‘safe’ developing markets, inasmuch as they are unlikely to be torn apart by civil war but are still growing at a double-digit clip.

That group might be losing a member now though – with the recent sanctions levelled against Russia starting to take a political toll, the leadership there has decided to levy sanctions of their own:

Russia has banned most food imports from the West in retaliation for sanctions over Russia’s involvement with Ukrainian separatists who are also suspected of shooting down a passenger jet.

The sanctions will cost Western farmers billions but could also lead to empty shelves and high food prices in Russia….

The Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a televised cabinet meeting yesterday that Russia’s retaliatory ban covers all imports of meat, fish, milk and milk products, fruit and vegetables from the United States, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Norway. It will last for one year.

…

In 2013 the EU’s agricultural exports to Russia totalled £9.4bn [$15.8 billion], while the US Department of Agriculture says food and agricultural imports from the US amounted to £771m [$1.3 billion].

This tit-for-tat may be small in the great grand scheme of things, but if you’re a Western company that’s bet heavily on Russia to maintain robust top line growth, you’re feeling a little less good about yourself than you were a year ago.  

The lesson to be learned here is diversify, diversify, diversify.  If you're going to make gambles on risky markets, make sure you've got enough business being driven by your safer, more traditional markets to keep you afloat if the unthinkable does happen!

Demoulas Market Basket Woes Continue

This story comes from the “so outrageous it has to be true” files.  If you have not been following the news recently (or do not buy groceries on the East Coast) you’ve probably never heard of DeMoulas Market Basket.  I hadn’t either, until I heard a piece about the grocer on NPR earlier this week. 

The company has been losing millions of dollars a week because the entire staff walked out of the company.  Their strike and protests are not caused by a lack of pay for workers, a disagreement about benefits, or an expiring labor contract. 

No, the workers are striking because their CEO was fired.

You read that right.  Thousands of minimum-wage workers have walked off the job to show solidarity with their millionaire former CEO Arthur T. DeMoulas, who was pushed out of the job by his cousin (and president of the board), Arthur S. DeMoulas. 

  

This outcry by the employees is pretty well unprecedented in the modern world.  Despite all of the populist rage across the globe about the excessive wealth held by the “1%”, this group of workers has such loyalty to their former executive that they’re willing to sacrifice their own well-being to support him.

From WBZ-TV, the CBS Boston affiliate:

Joe Schmidt, a manager and Market Basket employee of 27 years, said he didn’t regret his decision, even after a courier knocked on his front door over the weekend with a termination letter.

“I know at the end of the day I did the right thing. I know I can look my children in the eye and tell them, ‘Hey, I took a stand for something,’ and you know that’s far more important than any job will ever be,” he told WBZ-TV.

Reading the various quotes about “Artie T”, you don’t really get the feeling that he’s doing anything out of the ordinary – he is visible to his employees, he knows people by name, he makes visits to each and every one of the stores on a regular basis, and he has built a culture of excellence across all levels.  Any decent leaders should do those things (and, as a leader, you may think you’re doing them, but you won’t actually know unless you ask). 

What makes Arthur T DeMoulas stand out, as far as I can tell, is the sense of ownership he has created in his people.  Over and over you see quotes like the following:

Market Basket employee Linda Kulis said she is “100 percent sure” she will lose her job but remains committed to take a stand to support DeMoulas.

“This is our company,” Kulis said. “We’ve all worked here. We’ve all built it. Together.”

“We’ve all built it together.”  These people aren’t just out protesting to protect their boss – they’re out three protesting to protect their team.

And that is the real question that you should be asking yourself.  As a leader, what are you doing to build a team that has this spirit of camaraderie, mutual respect, and shared sacrifice?  If you were fired tomorrow, would anyone come with you?