Pumpkin beers to try

Who can recommend a few good pumpkin beers that I should try tonight? I'm gonna hit the liquor store on my way home and get a mixed 6er. I've already tried Harvest Moon (vile) and O'Fallon's Pumpkin Ale (meh)...what else you got?

And hurry, for Pete's sake, I'm leaving work in 20 minutes!

I haven't tried it, but FDH makes one (Punkin Ale).

Smutty nose was ok and so was Cisco. We had a pumpkin stout the other night that was pretty tasty...

Thank you, ladies...writing them down now. I was wondering about the DFH Punkin Ale. Has anyone actually had it?

I have had DFH Punkin in past years. It wasn't my favorite then.

Saranac and Brooklyn (Post Road Pumpkin) make my two faves.

I tried the Blue Moon Pumpkin Ale and thought it was ok, definately not vile. What are you tasting that makes you call it vile? Maybe I'm not tasting it?

I really liked Southern Tiers' Pumking Imperial Pumpkin Ale. It has a big time pumpkin pie flavor but just enough of the malt to mellow it out and a bite at the end.

Punk from DFH is good, I liked last years better.

Ichabod from New Holland Brewing is one of my favorites

Pumpkin from Lake Front Brewery is awesome (and the only lager pumpkin beer I am aware of)

Those are my top three every year

I have a 6'er of New Holland at home that I haven't tried yet, I'm glad you said you liked it, they guy in the store said it's good.

The best pumpkin beer I've ever had was Pumpking from Southern Tier. I haven't had it in a few years, went to Bottleworks in Seattle last weekend and tried to pickup some but they said it sold out in a day or two.

For a regular pumpkin ale I would go with Post Road or Dogfish. For the imperial I would go with Weyerbacher. Tried the Southern Tier one a few weeks back..Wayyy too much nutmeg in it..The aroma was fantastic but it overshadowed the other spices.

Last night my friends and I did a taste test with three pumpkin beers. I live on the west coast and these can be purchased relatively easily at any BevMo.

1. Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale
2. Shipyard Pumpkin Head Ale
3. Buffalo Bills Pumpkin Ale

Buffalo Bills won as a favorite of everyone, here are some notes on the tasing:

* Harvest Moon had a great spice character in the nose. Everybody found it very enticing but once taking a drink the spice notes faded. Barely any pumpkin taste or color, looked like a light lager with a tint of orange in it.

* Shipyard Pumpkin Head is from Portland Maine, maybe the shipping time is the reason this beer scored so poorly. Everyone thought this beer had uninteresting nose and flavor, no pumpkin taste and relatively little spice. It did seem to look like it was brewed with more pumpkin, as it had almost a bright orange color.

* Buffalo Bills Pumpkin Ale is apparently the 'original', at least in the modern sense, pumpkin ale. It is brewed on the west coast for the Buffalo Bill brewery by Pyramid(probably brewed mine in Berkeley, so it was relatively fresh). Wonderful spice nose and slight hints of pumpkin, once you drink it one can taste the slightly tangy pumpkin flavor of pumpkin pie. The spice is present but not overpowering, it really does tasted like drinking a pumpkin pie, and in my opinion this is how a pumpkin ale should taste.

Well there are a ton out there...you choose from which ones you like.

Shipyard Pumpkinhead
Southern Tier Pumking
Dogfish Head Punkin
Post Road Pumpkin (Brooklyn Brewery)
Saranac Pumpkin
Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin
Blue Moon Pumpkin
Jack's Pumpkin Spice
Imperial Pumpkin (Weyerbacher brewing company)
Fishermans Pumpkin Stout (Cape Ann Brewery)
Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale
Southhampton Pumpkin Ale
Double Pumpkin Ale (Great Lakes Brewing Company)
Wolaver's Pumpkin Ale (Otter Creek)


Those are just a few...The Post Road is very good, not to spicy.
The Pumking by Southern Tier is very spicy.
Pumpkinhead by Shipyard is very light.
Punkin by Dogfish Head comes in a 4 pack, high abv and is very nice.

ST Pumking is my favorite, and is, IMO, the richest, most dessert like (vanilla, nutmeg). DFH's is rich too and a bit rummy tasting. Unlike cercueil, I would put DFH with the "big" ones and not with Post Road or Jack's or the other "smaller" ones.

I'm not sure if any really taste like pumpkin rather than the related spices. But the same could be said of pumpkin pie.

Brewin_Bob said:

I tried the Blue Moon Pumpkin Ale and thought it was ok, definately not vile. What are you tasting that makes you call it vile? Maybe I'm not tasting it?

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Vile was a bit hyperbolic. To answer your question though, what was I tasting? Nothing! No pumpkin flavor, very very little spice flavor or aroma. It's an alright beer I guess, just not a pumpkin beer IMO.

adrock said:

Vile was a bit hyperbolic. To answer your question though, what was I tasting? Nothing! No pumpkin flavor, very very little spice flavor or aroma. It's an alright beer I guess, just not a pumpkin beer IMO.

Click to expand...

Ahh, I see what your saying. It definately wasn't pumpkin-pie-in-a-bottle.

Not much Pumpkin selection out here.

I've had the:
Blue Moon Pumpkin
Punk'n by Four+ Brewing Co.
Buffalo Bills Pumpkin

None of them were great.

Here's what I got, on the off chance anybody cares:

1. New Holland Ichabod
2. DFH Punkin Ale
3. Brooklyn Post Road Pumpkin Ale
4. Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale
5. Jack's Pumpkin Spice
6. Great Lakes Commodore Perry (I have an IPA problem!)

Drinking the Ichabod now; it's very good. Great pumpkin and spice aroma in balance coupled with a spicy, malty flavor. Low carbonation, no visible lacing. It's a good start to the evening.

I mostly got the Jack's Pumpkin Spice to see how my palate has developed over the last year. I just got into homebrewing and trying finer beers about a year ago, and I remember liking Jack's very much back then. It'll be interesting to see if I think it tastes like dogsh*t now.