Are Pumpkin Beers losing popularity?

I say NO, they are not losing popularity. Stores in my area can't keep the better brands in stock. Schlafly and Williamsburg lasted a couple weeks and were gone, sadly. I really like New Belgium's Atomic Pumpkin. Sadly, it was gone in little more than two weeks. Pumking and Warlock were easily obtainable until two years ago and always sold well. Now I cannot find them in my town. The only bright side is the appearance of Basic Becky from Prairie. Oh, and I picked up Elysians Pumpkin Pack that I saw for the first time at Kroger today. Looked like I grabbed the next to last one.

Those are all great pumpkin beers I listed. Why the scarcity? I don't think they are less popular. Those beers always fly off the shelf and are gone before or shortly after Thanksgiving. I buy a ton of them and will drink them through New Year's alongside holiday ales. This year I'm thinking my next homebrew will be a pumpkin or pumpkin stout due to the shortage in my area.

 

I really enjoy the Pumpkin biers. I believe they are being released abit too early for my liking. By the time fall sets in, Halloween and Thanksgiving arrives, I'm pumpkined out. Exercising restraint would be one answer, but when they are there and your ready for a change, that strategy fails 100% of the time.

 

There actually seems to be more pumpkin beers this year. But what has definitely changed is the format - 16 oz. 4-packs of cans instead of 12 oz. 6-packs of bottles for many of them, and the price went up! Even the Spencer Trappist Brewery has come out with The Monkster Mash!

 

The problem for me has always been that I only want 1 or 2 then the rest sit. No reason to have a 6 pack of any pumpkin beer

 

Local brewers don’t need to bother with their time and money this style. Enough store options even if they are scaled way back from past years to satisfy the demand.

 

My personal favorite type of brew is pumpkin ale...
Rivertown Pumpkin Ale is on the top of that list.
But yes.... Pumpkin ales are getting harder to come by...

 

One can only hope that pumpkin beers are losing their popularity

 

The trend here is way down, now it’s token at best. The better store in Greensboro two years ago got stuck with pallets of Pumpkin beers that sat forever. He said never again and he stuck to it. Small retailers cannot afford to buy stuff that sits forever, or they have to discount to get rid of it. Margins as it is are tight and it’s not worth the risk and hassle.

 

In this area, pumpkin beer died with Elysian. Dick Cantwell was behind the pumpkin beer obsession and the Great Pumpkin Beer Festival and managed to get everyone to create numerous pumpkin beers for the festival on top of the 12+ Elysian would make every year.

After Elysian sold and Dick Cantwell left, some breweries stopped attending the festival and in turn stopped producing pumpkin beers. Just like that, pumpkin beer was dead.

The owl tells the story better than I do:

 

I regret to infor... ehhh never mind.

 

I grew up in the Springs. I remember the schools trucking us out there every year and picking a pumpkin. I also remember getting to feed rotten ones to their hogs. That's Terrible to hear about the contamination. Hopefully they can get that figured out.

 

Yeah haven't seen any pumpkin beers except Elysian.
I don't think they have ever been popular in the PNW, especially in the recent decade when its fresh hop ales , then marzens/Oktoberfest's..then on to winter ales.

 

Pumpkin beers are not losing popularity IMO. I think far too many breweries produced them and flooded the market, including racing them to shelf space around Labor Day. Stores ended up with more than the demand and after getting burned with inventory after Thanksgiving that they won't sell, they started ordering less.

We will see this with the NEIPA's, and I think its already starting. When there is way more production than consumer demand, the end of the supply chain pushes back by taking less. Doesn't mean it isn't popular; just means we stop seeing shelves flooded with a particular style.

 

I really like Pumpkin beer. In my area there are stores with maybe 2 or three and that is it.One store has only Shipyard pumpkin and no others. This is a fairly big chain. I have noticed a decline in the selection around my area.

 

Don't seek it out; but will occasionally buy one on tap for the eff of it. Only one that stands out over the last few years was the 4Noses Pump Action.
Otherwise... best for carving. Cheers, enjoy!

 

They were popular

They were never good though*




*I'll admit there were a couple good ones (that line up with BA Pumpkin rankings) that are pretty good, but I made the mistake at Wegmans a couple years ago of grabbing two MYO6pks with a bunch of Pumpkin beers I'd never tried, and I'll be honest all 12 were basically undrinkable.

 

I don't think I'll ever get over the fact that so called 'pumpkin' beers are not actually flavored with pumpkin. Yes, some brews are truthful and do say 'pumpkin spices' or some such, but imagine if you beer actually tasted like squash?
Hopefully this doesn't give a brewery that idea.

 

To each their own, but I would not be sad whatsoever if pumpkin beers ceased to exist. I know some people love them, but I just don't get it. Admittedly, I'll try one each year just tomake sure my tastes haven't changed....turns out they still haven't.

 

Some are brewed with pumpkin as an ingredient (I guess that qualifies as "flavored with pumpkin" for most people?), some aren't... I don't buy either kind but I'm sure, given the TTB labeling rules, the fine print revealed which are which.

Ruling 2015-1 Examples of Adequate and Inadequate Designations in Accordance with Trade Understanding
specifies that in the case of a "Lager to which nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice are added before or during fermentation..." these would be "Misleading designations:
• Pumpkin lager
• Pumpkin-flavored lager"