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What can you find more of around Halloween than girls in slutty-nun costumes? Pumpkin beers. They can’t all be good, though; only one can be king of the pumpkins. Here at Bostonist we tried a small selection of the beers in search of the best.
A few pumpkin brews didn’t taste much like pumpkin at all; however, this didn’t necessarily make them bad beers, just not pumpkin beers. Saranac Pumpkin Ale, for instance, greets you with a beautiful dark orange color. The taste is a nice malty, harvesty one, but not pumpkin. Smuttynose’s Pumpkin Ale is a similar story. This beer is rather hoppy with strong spices; the nutmeg sticks to the top of your tongue. Because of its strong tastes this is definitely a sipping beer.
On the opposite end of Smuttynose is Shipyard Brewing’s Pumpkinhead Ale. It doesn’t have much of a smell, but is sweet and tastes like pumpkin filling. It is not as flavorful as some of the others, the taste falling off halfway through. However, this wheat beer would hold up well as a pumpkin session beer.
Two disappointments were Brooklyn Brewery's Post Road Pumpkin Ale and Blue Moon's Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale. Both didn’t taste much like pumpkin at all, so failing in the eponymous department. Post Road had a slight aftertaste of cloves but was, as one taster quipped, “full of potholes.” Harvest Moon had an unfortunate taste at the back of each sip.
More pumpkins after the break!
Photo courtesy djprybyl on Flickr using Creative Commons License
Runner up to best pumpkin beer is Weyerbacher’s Imperial Pumpkin Ale. This beer comes with a true pumpkin color and a punch: 8.0% abv. Its hoppiness hides in a very strong nutmeg and cinnamon combination, which unfortunately leaves little room for the pumpkin flavor to come through. It has a pleasant sweet finish, though, and is overall a great beer that happens to be a pumpkin beer.
The king of pumpkin beers, however, is appropriately Pumpking Imperial Pumpkin Ale by Southern Tier. Their success perhaps lies in the fact that they did not take the pumpkin assignment to literally; that is, it does not taste like pumpkin pie in a bottle. Though the beer surely smells of pumpkin, the taste of pumpkin is perfectly balanced with notes of clove and buttery caramel. The beer is strong, but not cloying. A perfect pumpkin.
We know there are other wonderful pumpkin beers out there (Cambridge Brewing Company’s Great Pumpkin and Dogfish Head’s Punkin for example) so let us know your favorites.
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Personal favorites: KBC Pumpkin Ale (available at Trader Joe's, though I've never seen it outside of there), and Four Peaks Pumpkin Porter. CBC's Great pumpkin is a huge disappointment.
Best autumn brew in the heartland, where pumpkins grow to the size of minivans, is the Pumpkin Ale from Bailey Lakes Brewery. Sorry, you won't find it in your favourite Boston package store. Better put Bailey Lakes, Ohio on your travel itinerary.