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| Testing the gravity of a beer is a 3 person job |
Dan, Daniel, and Philip blind taste tested 27 pumpkin beers from North Carolina and beyond. Each of us purchased a full can/bottle for each tester, or we shared pours from a bomber. Only one of us knew what the beer was and we tried to guess what the beer it was after we rated them. We first rated each beer on a scale from 0 to 5 of various qualities such as maltiness, bitterness, and alcohol bite. A "5" on our ranking didn't necessarily mean that it was excellent in that flavor, just that that flavor was absolutely dominant. A "0" meant we couldn't detect the flavor at all, and a "3" was a strong detection of that flavor. Part-way through our analysis we change the category "sour" to "pumpkin". We should have done that the whole time as nothing we tried was remotely sour. I blame Dan.
Some other things to consider:
- Pumpkin versus pumpkin pie! A straight up pumpkin flavor meant it tasted like the vegetable pumpkin. Many beers we tried went more for the pumpkin pie flavor, meaning it was pumpkin but also lots of spice (vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.).
- A lot of people don't like pumpkin beer. We think that's because a good number of what we tasted was horrible. I suppose that some companies don't put a ton of time into making their pumpkin beers. Of the 27, eight averaged below 2.5. Five beers we ranked 4.0 and better, and two were higher than 4.0.
- For the love of all that is holy, companies need to chill on their cinnamon. Several beers were near undrinkable with how much cinnamon they added.
- Dan was the meanest reviewer, doling out an average score of 2.86. Daniel was second, averaging 3.06. Philip was the kindest, averaging 3.15.
