20 - 11

20) Weyerbacher (Easton, PA) - Imperial Pumpkin Ale
8% ABV, 21 IBU
Dan: 2 Daniel: 2.5 Philip: 2.5   Average: 2.33

More bite than Daniel expected (he poured it so he knew which beer this was). Philip suggested there was an off flavor. We all commented that the smell of this dark beer was better than it's flavor. We got some notes of raisin and cardamom. We also detected mint, which was off. Overall we found this drinkable but not smooth.


19) Foothills (Winston-Salem, NC) - Cottonwood Pumpkin
5.3% ABV, 5 IBU
Dan: 2.75 Daniel: 1.75 Philip: 3   Average: 2.5

As you can see, there was some disagreement on this one. Philip and Dan found it to be an easy, pleasant, drinkable type, but Daniel disagreed. It was high in pumpkin flavor but not in pumpkin pie spiciness, which Philip found particularly enjoyable. Smooth is another good descriptor. The pour was light and foamy. At first smell we thought we were drinking Harvest Time (which we rank #2 out of 27), but we found it to be less rich in flavor and less malty.

17 (tie)) Aviator (Fuquay Varina, NC) - Pumpkin Beast
6.2% ABV, 17 IBU
Dan: 2 Daniel: 2.5 Philip: 3.25   Average: 2.58

We hadn't started rating for pumpkin by this beer but it's probably about a 2.5. Philip liked this a good bit. It's a malt forward beer with some hop flavor in the background. There was disagreement on how big of a body this had. Philip thought it had a nice mouthfeel and medium body, and the Dans agreed the body was on the lighter side. As one of the Dans described, it had "a long, bad linger". I suppose the verdict is at best it's nice and drinkable, and at worst it's mediocre. Philip also thinks it is crinimal that this beer was tied with Shipyard and wants to blame Danny boy for making this huge mistake.


17 (tie)) Shipyard (Portland, ME) - Pumpkinhead
4.5% ABV, 18 IBU
Dan: 2.5 Daniel: 3.5 Philip: 1.75   Average: 2.58

CINNAMON APPLE SAUCE, just like #22. Holy smokes they went overboard on the cinnamon here. The experience of drinking Pumpkinhead is like drinking an Amber ale poured into a Costco-sized cinnamon container one tenth-filled with cinnamon. If you could see past the cinnamon, which is not physically possible, it was somewhat tasty. I'd liken it to a slightly better version of Thirsty Dog's pumpkin offering. Having visited Shipyard in Portland, I can say that every other offering they had on their sampling taps were superior to this beer. But apparently they sell the heck out of this brew nation-wide, so go figure.


16) Flying Dog (Frederick, MD) - The Gourd Standard
6.7% ABV, 60 IBU
Dan: 2 Daniel: 3 Philip: 3.25   Average: 2.75

This is an interesting concept: a pumpkin IPA. It had a nice and strong pumpkin aroma and a heavy-but-not-overbearing hop character. We wanted it to be maltier. Dan didn't like it, but the others found it to be really pleasant. In spite of the novelty of the offering, it's a beer I wouldn't mind drinking a 6 pack of over the course of 2 weeks, but not a beer I'd want more than one of in a single evening.

15) Duclaw (Baltimore, MD) - 31 Pumpkin Spiced Lager
5.7% ABV, 27 IBU
Dan: 3 Daniel: 3 Philip: 3   Average: 3

We hadn't ranked pumpkin at this point; I'd say by memory it's about 1.5. A tailgating beer. We didn't realize it was a lager at the time, because we're idiots, but we kept commenting while drinking that "this ale is light in most flavors". Well, duh. It's a lager. I thought this was very nice and pleasant to drink. There was a smack of pumpkin to it. They found a way to make a good lager and add the right amount of pumpkin to still keep it a solid and clean lager flavor. We all really enjoyed this one.

13 (tie)) Harpoon (Boston, MA and Windsor, VT) - UFO Pumpkin
5.9% ABV, 20 IBU
Dan: 3 Daniel: 3.5 Philip: 3   Average: 3.17

The UFO series features unfiltered wheat beers with different twists. This pumpkin variety was by all accounts quite nice. This was the first beer we rated and we all enjoyed a fair bit, and the first one I'd recommend to the readers to buy a 6 pack of. Everything else below this point is certainly worth investigating. "Investigating" and "research" are both words I use to justify buying beer to my wife. "Dear, I'm paying the credit card and wanted to know, why did you spend $60 on pumpkin beer?" "Silence! Research awaits!" We found it to have a perfect level of pumpkin flavor (which we weren't rating yet). We also thought the hop balanced the pumpkin nicely. The best way to describe the Harpoon Pumpkin ale is "even".

It should be noted that Philip's and Daniel's wives are lovely and supporting women who do enjoy conducting "research" too.

13 (tie)) Deep River (Clayton, NC) - Pumpkin Pie Porter
5.9% ABV, 13 IBU
Dan: 3 Daniel: 3.25 Philip: 3.25   Average: 3.17

This is a heady beer with a surprisingly big roast character. Interestingly, in spite of its name, we didn't consider it to have as much spice character as many other beers on this list. I thought when I first had this beer (before this rating session) that I'd get a concoction filled with vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom, etc., but instead we found it to appropriately spiced. Kudos, Deep River, kudos. It's also less malty than you'd think. The pumpkin flavor comes and goes, but it came out consistently in the aroma. We found this beer to get a little worse as it warmed up.

12) Rogue (Newport, OR) - Pumpkin Savior
5.6% ABV, 21 IBU
Dan: 3.5 Daniel: 3.25 Philip: 3   Average: 3.25

I'd say this is the most pretentious title of beer we reviewed. Same company that brings you Voodoo Doughnut Mango Astronaut Ale. Spoiler: that beer is terrible. Fortunately, this beer is very nice! We found Pumpkin Savior to be as close as you can get to too much spice, but not overboard. They seemed to use a variety of spices and not just cinnamon, which probably helped it to stay balanced in flavor. Very pleasant and very drinkable. We'd like a bit more pumpkin but otherwise had few complaints. Probably wouldn't pay the $10 or so to get a bomber of it, but still a good ale.

11) Crown Valley (Genevieve, MO) - Imperial Pumpkin Smash
10.6% ABV, 48 IBU
Dan: 3.75 Daniel: 2.75 Philip: 3.75   Average: 3.42

Woo-wee! This is a big boy. The Imperial Pumpkin Smash is the second highest alcohol by volume on the list, cresting the 10% mark. To help balance that massive alcohol flavor, they must have balanced it by achieving a high final gravity, perhaps by mashing at high temperatures. We found this beer to be sweet, cloyingly so. SMASH stands for Single Malt And Single Hop (get it?). I'm curious how they got that maltiness with just one malt, what malt did they use? It's not the most complex maltiness, but it's a big maltiness. There was a deep pumpkin flavor which helped add complexity. We also found this beer to taste of diet Pepsi. We reviewed this beer twice because Sean poured us one in secret. Here's how we ranked it the first and second time we tried (above are averages): Dan 4/3.5, Daniel 2/3.5, Philip 4.25/3.5. You can see we're a bit all over the map, which shows how subjective and difficult it is to nail down a style, especially when you don't know what beer you're drinking. I really enjoy drinking this big beer, but I'd prefer a deeper malt complexity and less sweetness. The author is also biased towards big ABV beers, and it's a known fact in brewing that brewing a big beer is much easier than a small beer because the off flavors are masked with a high ABV.