I enjoyed this with some butternut squash risotto. This “beer” (It seemed more like cider) was very bubbly, with a champagne-like head was light and fruity, with just a hint of bready beer flavor. It went well with the risotto, cutting through the heavy/cheesiness perfectly. The website says the beer is a “conditioned blond living ale”, and seems to be made for some sort of beverage collective. Again, my mom  picked this one out. She sure is good at picking out obscure stuff.
This beer, Painted Ladies Pumpkin Ale from Tyranena in Lake Mills Wisconsin, was selected by my mom. The packaging is some of the most hideous design work I have ever seen, and the name of the brewery is totally bizarro. Nevertheless I gave it a try and was pleasantly surprised by the beer. It was full of spice and fell somewhere on the pumpkin pie end of the spectrum. A little bit heavy but delightfully satisfying.
This picture sucks, probably because I really didn’t like this beer. Avery’s Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest clocks in at 10.1% ABV, which was incredibly apparent to me, and was slightly hoppy and bitter. Wasn’t my favorite from Avery.
Southern Tier’s Pumking is the first pumpkin beer I had ever tasted (about 2 years ago) and it still rules. It has an extremely nutty smell that lends to a really different pumpkin beer. A lot of the beers were fairly sweet and had a syrupy mouth feel, but this beer didn’t fall into this category, and was a nice way to bring the tasting to a close. Also, Southern Tier wins for most bad-ass name/bottle art. So very reminiscent of The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Dogfish Head’s Punk was a real stand-out in the pumpkin line-up. One of Dogfish Head’s first, if not THE first beer. It had a bitter finish and was loaded with spices like clove, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon…which according to the video we watched featuring Dogfish Head brewmaster, Sam Calagione, are sourced locally. The spices were done just right, so it’s no wonder this beer is one of the brewery’s best sellers!
Uinta’s Punk’n didn’t have a very strong pumpkin flavor…and I noted that it was more “beer-y”…I think that way meant to convey it’s lack of pumpkiny-ness. We spent a fair amount of time trying to pronounce Uinta, and then looked it up only to be very disappointed by its less than dazzling pronunciation.
Buffalo Bill’s was the first beer of the pumpkin tasting, and one of my favorites. A real easy drinker very light and very carbonated. Maybe not for those who like a beer that packs a real punch.
Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale was enjoyed right after Buffalo Bill’s version of this beer…and this may have caused my dislike for it. Buffalo Bill’s was fairly  sweet and had a really light mouth feel that made it really easy to drink. The Smuttynose was however really hoppy, and following something that was so sweet, gave off a soapy-vibe. I’ll have to try this one again to see if it stands up better on its own.
Frog’s Hollow Double Pumpkin Ale was one of the worst beers we tried. I had actually already had it paired with some homemade mac n cheese, and I think it worked well with the cheesey/nuttiness, but alone was not very good. We all agreed that it had an “I just brushed my teeth then took some cough syrup” taste to it. Then we concluded that this was attributable to the ginger in it…ginger sadly used in the wrong way. And what makes this beer “double”???
Post Road by Brooklyn Brewery was a bit of a let-down. It had a really vegetal smell to it and tasted a bit like marinara sauce. Very little pumpkin flavor could be discerned. Not recommended as far as pumpkin beers go.