Which Pumpkin Ale would you like? :)
August through
October is my favorite time of the year to indulge in beer. It’s all those pumpkin ales that hit the
market. I’m an addict to pumpkin ales! (not really,
but I do get overly excited about them).
I remember the first pumpkin ale I ever saw in the
store. It was a decade ago and the brand
was Saranac Pumpkin Ale. The first time
I tried it I thought, "eh, it’s all right, kind of bitter, but all right.” My palate has since evolved and I have tried
almost every pumpkin beer that’s available in the Hudson Valley Region.
In case you’re wondering…”pumpkin in beer?!” It’s actually a three hundred year old
recipe, though I doubt there were loads of spices in the them like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger
and vanilla. Nevertheless, the
colonists of that era would use pumpkins and squash for the malt of their brew.
"According
to beer expert Lew Bryson, “American colonists used pumpkins,
corn, spruce tips, and persimmons before they managed to import, and later grow
barley.” Pumpkin was a readily available ingredient and a fermentable sugar,
filling in for the malt needed to make beer. For colonialists, brewing ales
with a local ingredient such as pumpkin was just more proof of their hardiness
and innovative spirit. By the nineteenth century, as traditional beer
ingredients became more accessible, ales made from pumpkins lost their
caché. Pumpkin beers made a semi-comeback in the mid-1800s, but as beers
flavored with the gourd rather than directly made from
it.
“If
our colonial forebears could see how popular pumpkin beer is today they’d be
stunned.
“But you have barley, hops and malt,” they’d say. “You can drink real ale!”
Perhaps
if our forebears tasted something like the Pumking they’d think, “how do you
ferment pumpkin pie?”
Now
lets look at my five favorite pumpkin ales:
#5
Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale.
This beer is
sharply crisp with a kick in the face of ginger and allspice. The pumpkin flavor hides in the background,
but overall it’s probably the best sessional pumpkin beer to drink.
#4: Harpoon Imperial Pumpkin
This
beer is half ale and half stout, and has a wonderful blend of pumpkin and
molasses. The abv is 10.5% Therefore,
it’s a sipper (I admit every time I have this I hardly sip ).
#3:
Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin
Very
nice ale, very beautiful burnt orange color. This beer is probably the best
balanced pumpkin ale on the market. You
get all the flavors of the pumpkin pie spices, in addition to pumpkin and none
of them are overwhelming. It also taste like a beer, rather than a desert.
#2:
Southern Tier Pumking
Almost
every pumpkin ale fan I know claims this is the best one available—and will
always be! They might be right. I had a really hard time choosing between
this beer and the one I picked for first place.
Although I have to disagree with what the majority of people say about
this ale. I in NO WAY find it like a
pumpkin pie in a glass. I think the only
reason people say that is because of this beer’s unique smell and aftertaste of
a rich graham cracker crust. What you
get with this baby is a nice refreshing taste of pumpkin, vanilla and graham
cracker. I don’t know how they do
that! And it works. It’s like a pumpkin orgasm in the mouth! But the cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice are
almost hiding in the background. I’m
glad for that because too many pumpkin beers like to throw those spices in your face
immediately.
#1:
Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin
It
seems I’m about to contradict my words above. This beer is mega-spice in your
face! It’s like the Mistress of Fall has
tied you up, is holding your mouth open with one hand while holding the spices of cinnamon, nutmeg and
ginger in her other, then blows the mixture right down your throat!
(Did that make sense?) However, it works!
Yes, this is my personal favorite pumpkin ale baby! You get ALL the
spices of pumpkin pie—overwhelmingly, a nice smooth taste of pumpkin, and also
that alcohol burn of a rich beer. That’s
why I think it works. You know it’s a beer!
I
hope you enjoyed my ramblings here. If
you like pumpkin beer, please comment and tell me your favorite!
Happy Drinking
J
