Pumpkin Beer Taste Test

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

Lauren Lear

About Lauren Lear

Virginian to Mainiac, I moved to Maine for a photo internship with Aurora Photos and stayed because I met the man I would marry after winking at him on Match.com. My photo business, Lola Studios, is where I pursue my love of fantasy photography using makeup and props to create alternate realities for my clients. I started this blog a little over a year ago to share the wedding prep, diy, food, and family experiences that I had. To bring you up to speed, my husband Alex and I bought a home, got married, went on our honeymoon, hosted Thanksgiving and Christmas back to back (never again ;) ), I turned 30 (never again :( ), we went to London to celebrate our first married year, and we got a puppy, Walter! That’s about it! I hope you’ll join me to see what unfolds next. Enjoy!