Stumble It!
Well, I’ve done it again. I’ve sacrificed another piece of my liver, soul, and dignity; not to mention hard earned money. I forced myself to drink 4 different type of Pumpkin Ale so that you don’t have to. With the craft beer industry gaining more and more of a following the market is also becoming full of shit. Finding a REALLY good beer can be tricky sometimes when you have to wade through so much mediocrity. I picked the O’Fallon Pumpkin Ale, Jack’s Pumpkin Spice Ale, Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale and Schalfly Pumpkin Ale. Obviously, my results are going to be a little skewed due to local availability of different beers and my unwillingness to spend money.
Firstly, the O’Fallon Pumpkin aleis one of my favorite beers in general. It is a relatively light tasting, copper colored ale that finishes somewhat dry and is easily pound able. This year’s batch is no exception. It is, as expected, delicious. Alcohol % is probably around 4-5 so this is not a high gravity ale. One of my (and everyone else’s apparently) complaints about Pumpkin Ales is that the spices are either too much or too little. I prefer the latter over the former. O’fallon Pumpkin has good spice proportion; balls on in my opinion. It really lets the Pumpkin play it’s part. In this case; it’s part is not show off but to accentuate the malt character of this fine beer. If you can find it I recommend buying a 6′er and pound it whilst watching football or spraying trick or treaters with a hose. Overall B+
The second beer I tried was the Jack’s pumpkin Spice Ale. I really wanted to hate this beer. Being from the STL area, we get to watch AB consistently take a good idea and water it down. Literally. It’s not that bad though. They didn’t get too carried away with the spices although the pumpkin taste leaves a little to be desired. No pumpkin pie here. It has a decent smell to it however it is more of an Ale smell than a Pumpkin smell. I guess the best characterisation I could give it would be Ale infused with essence d’pumpkin. I wouldn’t recommend this to someone who enjoys a good beer, but for an uncle who drinks Stag it might go over well. I was neither impressed or disappointed since I already thought it would be shite. Instead it is the Bud Light of Pumpkin Ales. Overall C.
Harvest Moon Pumpkin alefrom Blue Moon Brewing was the other Macro entry into the pumpkin off. I thought this one was a bit better than the Jack’s however it wasn’t THAT much better. It had a better Pumpkin aroma but the spices on this one are a little borderline in my opinion. It’s got a nice copper color and a little bit of head retention but I think it could have better. I think this started as an awesome recipe and was dumbed down in order to not offend the sensitive tongues of most beer swillers. It clocks in at 5.6% ABV so it has a little strength. I did like that is was a bit sweet and that seems to lend itself to the pumpkin. Overall I give it a C+
Schlafly Pumpkin Alewas clearly best in show in this go-’round. It was everything I expected from a pumpkin Ale. Color was a deep copperish amber. Smell is unmistakeably Pumpkin Pie. It does have quite a bit of sweetness but it isn’t over the top. Plus, it’s sportin’ 8% ABV so you won’t need many to get warmed up. This was by far my favorite out of the bunch. Cost was $8.99 for a 6-pack but I really think I’m going to buy a 12 pack maybe a case to enjoy through Christmas and I would suggest you do the same. Overall A
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That’s an excellent point…a few years ago, literally any beer NOT made by the macro giants was a delicious well-crafted craft beer. But now every one is making “craft” beer that a lot of it is garbage and it’s getting harder and harder to find the good stuff. Lately, I find myself standing at the beer store for a half hour standing at the selections like a retard, so overwhelmed
I’ve been thinking about trying the Harvest Moon BTW..
[...] Lots of Pumpkin Ale talk this week. [...]
I found the O’Fallon to be a much better balance of spice and pumpkin flavor than the Schlafly. I had the Schlafly over at the Bottleworks, and found it to be far too heavily spiced. It tasted more like a bunch of cloves than a balanced, pumpkiny ale. O’Fallon was one of the better “fall” beers I’ve had in a while.
Otherwise I think your comments are spot on.
Yeah. I think for an overall balanced beer the o’fallon is better. but as for a pumpkin ale There is better. Thanks for commenting.