Fall is here and that means its time for Pumpkin beer from a variety of vendors. Every year I look forward to one very special Pumpkin beer which can be hard to find in my area. Due to the elusiveness of this beer, I’ve had to venture out and try other brands. Some have come very close, but only one can reign Pumpkin King for me. This beer is DogFish Punkin Ale, which I first discovered at one of my favorite restaurants, Local 188, www.local188.com. After trying so many pumpkin beers and seeing many more arise I decided to have a blind taste test with my husband, Alex, and his cousin, Steve. Let’s see how my favorite beer held up.
The contestants:
Woodchuck Cider, Long Trail, Shipyard, Sam Adams, DogFish, Gritty’s Halloween Ale, Post Road, and UFO.
The judges:
Steve, Lauren, and Alex (???)
(Steve, Alex, and I are going to Octoberfest in Augusta next weekend and will be dressing the part, hence the costume. Stay tuned next week!)
I poured each beer into groups of three cups labeled with numbers to identify the group and made a key to refer to later. I asked the guys to rate each beer 1-8 and also give a few words to describe them.
After much fun tasting and deliberating, we came to an interesting conclusion.
The top 3 beers:
Sam Adams reigned supreme in our test, followed by Woodchuck Cider, and Halloween Ale. I found this interesting because my normal favorite was not in the top 3, the winner was a new launch this year, a cider made second place, and Halloween Ale was third and is technically not a “pumpkin beer”.
Here are a few critiques from the judges:
Sam Adams
Steve: pumpkins, apple pie, yummy
Lauren: waxy, spicy smell, rich, weird start
Alex: apple pie-y, Smokey Robinson, Alan Thicke
Woodchuck
Steve: candy, apple cider
Lauren: cough syrup
Alex: weird aftertaste, apple juice, bubbly
Halloween Ale
Steve: tastes good
Lauren: rich, good flavor, dark
Alex: smokey, ice creamy
There you have it. We may not be the most professional critics, but we had fun doing it!
What do you think of Pumpkin flavored beers? Do you have a favorite?
Cheers!
Lauren