Is trashing pumpkin beers hypocritical for some?

Last time I checked, people can do whatever they want. My two cents: drink what you like and move on.

 

I think pumpkin beers get disparaged to some degree because nowadays there is an entire season of the year where literally everything is pumpkin flavored (ravioli, really?). There are a lot of hipsters in the craft beer world who dislike nothing more than being part of a trend (unless they started the trend first--"I had my beard before it was cool"). That, plus the "white suburban girl" with her pumpkin spice latte stereotype turns off a lot of people who don't want to be thought of similarly. The beer itself is objectively no better or worse than any other with one of a thousand different added ingredients.

 

I believe that what you do or do not like is totally subjective. I personally cannot stand any beer that tastes like it came out of a baking pan - most pumpkins. I have tasted some delicious pumpkin ales where it was obvious that the pumpkin was added but they passed on the cinnamon and allspice. They were not pumpkin forward and didn't taste like spice cake or a piece of pie. So I can trash pumpkin beers AND enjoy them too.

 

Haha if you’d asked me to name one non-gimmicky pumpkin thing I would have said ravioli. a) I think they can be delicious. b) fairly certain they predate the whole American pumpkinify-everything-in-the-fall frenzy and actually have legit Italian roots

 

Pumpkin ales might get extra "trashing" because, rather than promoted as part of the popular "innovation" fad, pumpkin ales are often designated as somehow "traditional". I recall one article discussed in the BA forums that said something to the effect that they "...have been brewed in America since Colonial times...". Well, yeah, if you ignore that period between the mid-1700s and the mid-1980s.

One of the very few older (pre-craft era) secondary sources for pumpkin ale, Baron's Brewed in America [1962] reprinted the "Receipt (sic) for Pompion Ale" dated 1771, which originated in Buckingham County VA, and is in the papers of the American Philosophical Society:

So, rather than a "beer" (i.e., an alcoholic beverage made primarily from grain) this recipe is basically a pumpkin wine, using the vegetable as the fermentable source, not a flavoring. Baron later notes that "Brewing from pumpkins...had never been popular...".

The pumpkin-pie-flavored pumpkin ales of the "craft era" were started by "Buffalo" Bill Owen at his California brewpub. His initial attempt had no "pumpkin flavor", so he added pumpkin pie spicing. He even later dropped the use of pumpkin all together, adding only the spices.

 

Fine if someone wants to register their distaste for any additive, but talking trash about other's preferences is childish, pointless, and is often done to provoke/troll. I expect many of the folks that trash ideas and their believers online do so because they don't have the cojones to do it in real life, face-to-face.

 

The funniest thing about this topic is that the taste of pumpkin is what I love most in "pumpkin" beers, and most have very little, or none. My taste in these beers varies in inverse proportion to how much they taste like pumpkin pie spice, i.e. gimme one with lots of pumpkin flavor, just a bit of pie spice flavor, and I'm good to go.

As far as people expressing their opinions about subjective things? I too have noticed this internet trend lately, not just here, but all the pages I visit.

 

It's not the fact they use additives, it's just IMO they're poorly done, pretty simple. I'd challenge anyone to come up with a pumpkin beer that tasted like pumpkin and not a clove/allspice/cinnamon bomb. What's the base beer? Who knows, all I get is a mouthful of heavy spices and heartburn.

 

Who hates pumpkin beer?

 

I think a lot of folks, perhaps a majority, associate pumpkin flavor with pumpkin pie, and therefore strongly on the spice side. A few years ago, Starbucks re-formulated their seasonal pumpkin drinks, highlighting that they were using real pumpkin. It was a dismal failure that they quickly dropped, because apparently few people wanted a squash drink. I tend to like the spice more than the squash, but good to have both.

 

Not me, but plenty of folks on BA dislike or hate pumpkin beers. To some, it's like challenging their politics or religion.

 

I understand the pumpkin pie part, but if it's the spice people want you could leave out the pumpkin, the base beer could be Bud Light for all that would matter.

 

Trashing pumpkin beers while actually enjoying them is hypocritical.

Trashing pumpkin beers while drinking other styles is not hypocritical.

 

Care to say that to my face?

 

If I understand the point here then @MNAle is sort of correct. Trashing pumpkin beer because you hate them is your God given right. Trashing them solely for having additives while drinking chili,grapefruit,black pepper ale could be considered hypocritical.
But good luck trying to stop that type of ignorant behavior,online or in person

 

To answer the question, no, I disparage pumpkin beers regularly and still sleep very soundly.

 

I would say yes, but I am also one who firmly rejects pumpkin spice beers.

Beer is being pussified before our eyes, and pumpkin beers are only a small part of the problem.

The next time you pickup a milkshake IPA, check your balls at the door

 

Hate is such a strong word. I simply vehemently dislike them.