ST Imperial Pumking

Spices are a defining point of pumpkin beers, for better or worse.

 

Live it or hate it, pumking taste like pumpkin pie.

 

Obviously people have different tastes in beers, personally I don't see the love Pumpking gets, overly spiced and sweet for me. Weyerbacher's, Jawjacker, Ichabod (New Holland and Alpine), Post Road, etc are all better than Pumpking to me, only beer I ever liked from Southern Tier was 2X.

 

FYI- Jaw-Jacker is not a pumpkin beer, despite having a pumpkin on the label.
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/454/38635/
"This is an ale brewed with spices, not brewed with pumpkin."

 

I always have a few Pumkings but personally don't enjoy "spice forward" beers all that much, unless it is Celebration Ale

 

True, still better than Pumpking.

 

Absolutely loved Pumking. I love over-the-top sweet imperials though. Schlafly's also a favorite.

 

If you are looking for a more subtle pumpkin spice flavors than you get from Pumking:

Saranac Pumpkin Ale
Post Road Pumpkin Ale
Shipyard Pumpkinhead (the low ratings on this beer are justified, IMO)

 

pumpking tastes like a sugar cookie. and anyone who is suggesting weyerbacher imperial pumpkin must not have read the OP because that shit is so heavily spiced it tastes like potpourri.

 

And how many of these threads are we going to have this year? Sigh.

 

If you see it, don't immediately ignore the oak aged pumking. It is more subtle IMO than the imperial version. I do agree though with your assessment of it being overly spiced. Dogfish will be easy to find, Great Pumpkin will be hard to find. Both of these are toned down though. I just see Long Trail came out with an Imperial, will have to try that or.

 

As what "MordorMongo" would say.....Thats just like your opinion man....

 

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Pumking is the best pumpkin beer there is. One man's opinion. The good news is that I am the one man that decides what I buy and drink. Will be picking up my fall case shortly. My 2nd favorite is DFH Punk'n. More pronounced brown sugar to me.

 

Well done sir!!! I especially love the clove/nutmeg combo in Celebration.....

 

Drain pour? Damn, that sucks! Pumpking is the best, Punkin a close second for me though. Try that one from DFH.

 

Exactly. People can feel free to dislike the beer all they want - Lord knows I look at some of the beers I've tried on the Wall of Fame and have no idea how they are liked that much - but I've honestly had more success with getting people that drink nothing but mediocre beers (mostly Yuengling, this is Pittsburgh after all) to try craft beer through Pumpkin Ales more than anything and because of the king especially. I've got coworkers here looking for cases of the king and they never drink craft outside of what I bring to get togethers.

 

i kinda enjoy the annual pumking bashing session. i dont really like most pumpkin beers and this is one of the worst out there. JP la parcela and Ghoulschip are favorite "pumpkin beers" but that's bc they dont really taste like any others out there.

 

as previously mentioned, Schlafly Pumpkin Ale is by far the best pumpkin I've had. The spices are blended perfectly along with the pumpkin in my opinion. I really enjoyed DFH Punkin' and ST Pumpking, but they take a backseat to Schlafly. I find DFH to have a nice balance of spices, but the body is lacking and ST is huge in sweetness but its spices are lacking.just my 2 cents. Cheers!

 

Top 3 pumpkin beers
1) Pumking - IMO, has the strongest pumpkin flavor along with the typical spices...also a bit of a vanilla kick. Truly delicious. Just got my sixtel running yesterday. Looking forward to enjoying on the deck on those nice cool late September evenings.....if it lasts that long!
2) DFH punkin ale - Less pumpkin flavor, more on the spices and brown sugar but still very good.
3) Schlafly pumpkin - Nice balance of pumpkin and spice overall. Neither dominates. Very much like a pumpkin pie. Never disappoints.

I have no idea how people can drink Smuttynose pumpkin. Maybe I got a bad batch when I tried it last year but it tasted very little like pumpkin and their terrible mix of spices made it taste like burnt pencil shavings with a little mint thrown in. Pass.