Lineup of Pumpkin Challenge
Back in early December I purchased a mixed 6 pack of various Pumpkin Beers at Woodman’s to sample and taste. Well I ended up forgetting about this purchase until I found it in my car’s trunk last night. Therefore, some of these 6 beers may not be in their freshest form but I sampled them anyway. A beer is a terrible thing to waste!
Pumpkin Beers can be hit or miss, some love them while others loathe them. I am one that always enjoys their uniqueness and search out brewpubs and bars in the fall that have them on tap. Sometimes one is all that’s necessary in a setting. However, a Pumpkin Beer does offer something unique in the crisp autumn air. George Washington is said to have brewed beer using pumpkins so this style of brew can be considered part of our American heritage. Even the GABF has a category for beer brewed with Fruit or Vegetables. So there is no need to laugh off this emerging category of ales and lagers.
The six beers that I purchased consisted of Blue Moon Harvest Moon, Buffalo Bill’s Brewery Pumpkin Ale, Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, Lakefront Brewery Pumpkin Lager Beer, Michelob Brewing Co. Jack’s Pumpkin Spice Ale, and New Holland Brewing Co. Ichabod.
All 6 of these Pumpkin Beers poured with little head that turned to a nice deep golden copper color. The Blue Moon Harvest Ale and Dogfish Head Punkin Ale poured out the darkest and Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale was the lightest in color.
The nose on all 6 varied but all brought forth a strong sense of spice and pumpkin. Lakefront’s Pumpkin Lager had the most pleasant aroma with New Holland’s Ichabod a very close second. Blue Moon’s Harvest Ale had the least amount of spice aroma but noticeable pumpkin.
Now on to taste. All 6 Pumpkin Beers contained noticeable pumpkin and spice tastes, some more enjoyable than others. The smoothest tasting of the bunch was Lakefront’s Pumpkin Lager. This may be since this is the only lager as the others are all ales. Lakefront lagers their Pumpkin Lager for 4 weeks to produce a more robust smooth taste than the quicker turnaround ales.
Taking the color, aroma and taste all in here is my ranking:
- Lakefront Brewery Pumpkin Lager
- New Holland Brewing Co. Ichabod
- Buffalo Bill’s Brewery Pumpkin Ale
- Blue Moon Harvest Ale
- Michelob Brewing Co. Jack’s Pumpkin Spice Ale
- Dogfish Head Punkin Ale
