Opinions on Pumpkin Beers

Some are good, some are bad. I really liked Rumpkin. You should try to find a bottle.

 

The only type of beer capable of quelling my desire to tick.

 

my two favorites are pumpking and good gourd

 

Tried several, just not my style...I'd rather have water...Seriously!!!

Cheers!

 

Elysian Night Owl is my go-to pumkin beer. I haven't ever rimmed my glass for beer. I wouldn't judge you if you did, it's just not for me. Some cocktails yes.

 

Pumking, Rumkin, Autumn Maple are all fantastic, would drink them year round if I could. I love the idea of Pumpkin Porters and Stouts but have yet to have one that really blows me away.

As far as rimming the glass, I prefer all the sugar and spice to come from the beer and not from the glass.

 

I enjoy a good pumpkin beer or two a season, but I really am not a big Pumpkin beer fan. Have enjoyed Pumking and Rumpkin, but pumpkin beer is just not my style overall.

 

I was never really a fan of the style but I've had some enjoyable ones recently. It's another style that my wife and I can enjoy together so I've been trying more of them this year.

My three favorites are Southern Tier Pumking (prior to this year this was the only pumpkin beer that I would drink), Hoppin Frog Frog Hollow and Uinta Oak Jacked Pumpkin (by far my favorite but my wife wasn't a fan of the boozy barrel aged flavors).

Obviously unlike many on this site I have no issues with very sweet beers. As such, I'm fine with sugared rims. I even mixed up Sugar In The Raw and cinnamon because we couldn't find premixed rim sugar in the store. We certainly don't sugar every glass we drink but it doesn't ruin a thing when we do. The sugar just pushes some of these beers further down the desserty road they were already traveling.

 

CCB Good Gourd, ST Pumpking, and Wayerbacher Imperial and my top three. To each their own on rimming the glass, but I have yet to do that.

 

From what I can gather from my nearly two years in the game, Pumpkin Beer as a style isn't very highly thought of by the majority of hardcore craft beer nerds. It seems to be viewed more as a novelty/gimmick, probably because of the fact that it has a great deal of crossover appeal to moderate craft fans or even BMC drinkers (c'mon...even my non-craft fans love buying cases of DFH Punkin) and because the style tends to be rather "samey" from beer to beer (most are indistinguishable from one another).

That said, I never grew out of the style, and it remains one of my favorite styles today. Tops for me have to be Williamsburg Alewerks Pumpkin, Schlafly Pumpkin, Evolution Jacques au Lantern, and Hardywood Park Pumpkin Saison. These four beers, to me, represent the very best in class of the style, and I've had Great Pumpkin and Treat and so on and so forth.

I'll let you know about Selin's Grove Pumpkin next week assuming it is still on tap when I get there.

 

Never done the sugared rim. My favorite is Good Gourd, but that's not really easy to find outside of Florida. Of the more available ones, I quite like Pumking. This year I've been enjoying the Smuttynose Pumpkin and Ithaca's Country Pumpkin.

 

Don't like them at all. Good Gourd was good for what it was, but it's nothing that I'd personally buy.

 

This is my favorite time of year, I have gone out of my way to try as many different pumpkins as possible. Thus far in my travels I find Williamsburg Alewerks Pumpkin Ale amazing, with Schflay Pumpkin Ale, Elysians The Great Pumpkin and Spring House Braaaiins Pumpkin Ale for Zombies rounding out my top 5. Siege06nd, I was up there when they launched it last Tuesday, this years isnt as good as last years. It seemed the maybe they rushed it. Maybe a few eeks it will have time to sit a little longer. We noticed as they changed kegs of it, that the taste and aroma from the first to the second was different as well.

As for rimming the glass, I agree that let the beer speak for it self. However we did take Southern Tier's Pumking and mix it with their Creme Brulee...about 50/50 and rimmed the glass with brown sugar and crushed graham crackers for an amazing drink...

 

Another vote for ST Pumking, I swear you can actually taste the crust. Also really liked Smashed Pumpkin, from Shipyard.

 

They have a place for me in pairing them with fall dinners. Tonight my gf made pork ribs in a crockpot and smothered them in a blackberry/roasted red pepper compote with a side of brown sugared maple acorn squash. Drank a Night Owl with it and it was great. Other than that, I do not really seek these beers out except for the tick. Great Pumpkin and Pumking were ok, but for the price Night Owl and Dark O' the Moon take the cake.

 

Only thing I dislike more is a ginger beer.

 

Saint Arnold Pumpkinator and Southern Tier Pumpking are the only pumpkin beers I have ever enjoyed. I am still trying to get my hands on Rumpkin.

 

The best: Cape Anne Pumpkin Stout, Pumking, DFH Punkin, Smuttynose.

Decent: Post Road, Pumple Drumkin, Smashed Pumpkin,

BAD: Pumpkinhead, Harpoon UFO Pumpkin, Sam Adams Regular Pumpkin Ale

Just my opinion.

 

I am a huge fan of the idea and genre. That being said most are fairly average. Shipyards is will be sickly sweet for most. New Hollands Ichibod is ok, Shocktops is a letdown. I do think ST Pumkings is probably head and shoulders above the rest, followed by Smuttynose.