Is trashing pumpkin beers hypocritical for some?

I loved pumpkin pie growing up and never understood how people could dislike it! Then I went to a Halloween party and tasted the crap most people associate with pumpkin pie...

See, my ma’ would bake her pies from scratch. Little sweet baking pumpkins, scratch crust, 3 ingredient whipped cream, etc. What you got was a restrained sweetness, a pleasant savory gourd character, and a subtle hint of spice topped off with a rich, but light whipped cream with more dairy creaminess than sweetness.

Most people are used to cloying, over spiced, HFCS-laden, artificial pumpkin flavoring, Wally World garbage pies topped off with the abomination that is Reddi Wip. They don’t hate pumpkin pie, they just hate 95% of them.

I feel like pumpkin beers are in the same boat. I genuinely enjoy stuff like Smuttynose’ pumpkin ale, with its noticeable gourd flavor, restrained spice, and pleasant hoppiness, but beers like that are the exception. So I think most people don’t really hate pumpkin ales...they just hate 95% of them!

FWIW, occasionally I’ll homebrew a pumpkin ale for Halloween. It uses a massive amount of scooped and baked sweet pumpkins (over 25% of the mash) and a very small amount of spices. I don’t brew it every year because it’s expensive and a pain in the dick to mash...

 

haha you are good value @Ahonky

 

Totally agree.

Similarly, pumpkin beer dates back to colonial times and is a legit American style.

While it's true that the super sweet pumpkin pie spice ales are a recent (and annoying) trend, there are still some great pumpkin beers and the style as a whole shouldn't be disparaged just because of the whole everything must be orange and pumpkiny in fall fad.

On a side note, a lot of people are surprised to learn that most of their pumpkin baked goods are actually made with butternut or similar squashes.

 

I have been trying many pumpkin beers over the years and they are the ultimate seasonal gimmick.

A Google search will tell you why. They are basically 1% fermentable sugar. The other 99% has very little taste.

If you want to brew a good fall seasonal with timely ingredients toasted pumpkin seeds, squash or yams would turn out better.

Edit- I guess you pumpkin beer fans like year old canned pumpkin? Because that's what they are brewing with if the beer is on the shelf before October/November.

 

I don't even waste energy being vehement.

 

Why? What about them makes you dislike them so much? I've just never heard anyone really have that strong of an opinion regarding them and am curious.

 

That's a shame, they are one of my favorite styles. Definitely, only a Fall beer, but they absolutely have their place.

 

Before ever venturing an opinion on pumpkin beers I pull out my gun and lay it on the desk. Sends a message to people whose taste in beer doesn't conform to my own.

 

Trashing badly done beers isn’t hypocritical even if I like Grapefriuit Sculpin, it’s the badly done thing that I mention. Adjuncts can be good or bad, but Pumpkin beers are universally bad, at least the on the ones I’ve tried so far.

 

Pumpkin and squash ravioli have been made for literally hundreds of years. In Northern Italy, pumpkin was a peasant meat substitute.

 

Not a huge fan of the beer but I usually consume a couple around the holidays, at times they have their place.

 

Avery and Almanac both make pretty incredible pumpkin strong ales.

 

@nc41 where as I understand your point I don't think it really connects to the point I was making at all.

 

Big jack o’lantern punpkins might be useless for brewing (and baking), but sugar pumpkins are certainly usable. They’ve got some fermentable sugars and a decent amount of flavor (percentages are pointless when flavor and aroma compounds can be detected in infinitesimally small concentrations). But I agree that exploring other ingredients is a great idea. Even to get a good pumpkin flavor! Acorn and butternut squash have similar flavor with greater efficiencies. Use them the same way distillers use apricot pits to mimic almond.

And what’s wrong with using year-old canned pumpkin? If properly packaged there should be very little degradation. I mean, if you are drinking IPAs right now you are drinking beers with year-old hops...

 

I find overspiced beers to be egregiously abhorrent. Pumpkin beers are simply a subset of those beers. The vast majority of them, at least.

 

Without getting into if something is hypocritical or not, there is at least a connection between liking a pumpkin beer because it tastes like you are drinking a good pumpkin pie and liking a chocolate coconut stout because it tastes like you are drinking a Mounds bar.

The consumer praise and brewer intention are essentially the same in those cases. The difference is that the Mounds beer is/was more niche and the pumpkin pie beer became inescapable for a moment - which then influences how people react to them.

 

You pumpkin beer haters are the Comic Sans bashers or the beer world! While you’re at it, I’d love to hear your opinion on Nickelback...

I award none of you courage awards for simply remembering to bring your pitchfork to the mob.

I think this is by far the largest piece of the equation. Also the reason why many Christmas ales and Belgian beers made outside of Belgium suck.

 

This is a great point that seems to be overlooked... furthermore, my issue is mainly with the seasonal creep associated with these beers. I dislike almost all spiced beer, but its so much easier for me to fully hate this style because I see it filling coolers in f****** July.

 

firm believer people can enjoy whatever they like. if it's not for me, doesn't mean it's not for anyone else. live & let live.

 

I want to see some different fall flavors. I'd be more interested in a pecan pie porter or a cranberry ipa/sour than a pumpkin spice beer. I'm ok with seasonal beers, but let's mix it up a bit more.

I'll try a pumpkin beer or two this year just to see, but the one stout I tried last year wasn't impressive to me. To each their own though, strokes for folks and all that.