OK to store pumpkin beers til next year?

The only one I tried to cellar was T.R.E.A.T from Midnight Sun. For over a year and yes, it mellowed out but the basic fresh flavours in it did not deteriorate much. The higher abv might have helped.

 

I have a bottle of Central Waters Headless Heron from last year that I plan to drink this fall, I will try to chime in here.

 

Cellaring pumpkin beers is a better course of action than drinking them, IMO.

Seriously, though, since the main flavors in pumpkin beers are the spices, not the pumpkin, I would think the flavors would drop off over time as the potency of the spices fade.

 

I routinely cellar pumpkin beers as I typically amasse too many each season and they still taste great the following year, if not better.

Enjoy!

 

I have kept pumpkin beers for a year and did not notice any problems. It is hard to quantify how much of a difference there is, but I still enjoy them.

 

You can give it a shot but, as per the usual response to the question "Should I cellar this?" comes the question "Have you had it fresh?" If the answer is yes, then I say go for it. It's just within the optimal ABV range so it's a decent candidate.

To provide my experience pertaining to the title of the thread, I just recently did a side-by-side with Crown Valley Imperial Pumpkin Smash: one fresh and one I had aged for a year. I definitely liked the aged one better since the spices were toned down, the roast came forward more, it wasn't as boozy as the fresh and the bit of oxidation that had occurred was a nice complement to the overall flavor profile. I actually think I'm gonna age one for two years this time around just to see what some more time will do to it. So, at least in the case of the 10.6% imperial pumpkin stout that I aged, it is definitely ok.

 

I'm just going to throw out that pumking cellars like a champ. I actually prefer it with a year or 2 on it

 

I've had mixed results. DFH Punkin did not survive a year for me. There was a strong wet paper taste in the middle/finish. I've had the same results as @winningwes91, Southern Tier Pumking, on the other hand, has aged wonderfully over the last year.

If you have enough to try a sample of your Good Gourd at the six month mark, I'd do that. That's when I first notice the issue with the DFH.

 

Pumpkinator is a good one to cellar. Any of Avery's BBA Pumpkins as well.

 

Pumpkinator actually only becomes drinkable after a year or so on it IMO. Fresh it's way too heavy on the spices.

 

I actually like it fresh, but a lot of people agree with you.

 

I opened this thread to make a similar comment. From my experimenting, Pumking and to a lesser extent Warlock both cellar nicely.

Elysian - the great pumpkin however was a pretty muddled thin mess that I would never age again.

 

I just opened some old pumpkins at a friend's place this past weekend for a bottle share. I've hosted pumpkin tastings 3 years in a row and we've never gotten to Pumking as people have always had too much by the end of the night and I've always saved that for last. I think it generally cellars well, sometimes better with a year or two than it is fresh. That said, I now have a Pumking vertical going back to 2010 and I'd like to see how it's held up.

Others that I've noticed have cellared well: Rumpkin, Elysian Great Pumpkin (good but not wow), Elysian Dark o the Moon (good but not wow), Good Gourd, Good Gourd Almighty would probably hold up amazingly well, Oak Jacked and the 2011 version of the Fisherman's Imperial Pumpkin Stout was still holding up nicely the other night. Though the 2012 wasn't that good.

That's the other thing you should consider. Aside from ABV, try it fresh and see if it has potential to age. If it's a fairly light beer now (which Good Gourd is not), it likely won't age well. If it's a spice bomb, big alcohol or has lots of structure, it should mellow and develop over time.

 

Weyerbacher's holds up well due to the 8% ABV. Pumking, unless you're a fan, has to be cellared to be tolerable. That beer to me is wretched with anything under a year on it. Even then I only want 2ozs of it.

 

Just cracked open a Pumking Rum Barrel Aged I picked up last year. Lost a lot of the flavor... Tasted like nutmeg and water

 

Anything barrel aged or high abv should cellar just fine. My experience is that the pumpkin tones down, the spices balance and I tend to like the beer better because of that. But, standard cellar rules apply. Don't cellar a 5% pumpkin ale, it likely won't improve like a 9% Imperial Pumpkin Porter will.

 

Just cracked a Crown Valley from 2014. Tastes great. It does tone down a bit. But I enjoyed it fresh too.
I have several 2014 Pumking's, a Warlock and a couple Avery's that I am looking forward to drinking this fall.
I also set aside a Schlafly and a Whole Hog. Not sure if they will do as well.