Pumpkin Beer Tasting

The Mission: Review this season's hottest flavored beer...Pumpkin Beer.

The Group: Joanna, Nick, Sawyer, Ashley, Dave and me.

Location: Joanna and Nick's Home

The Lineup:

1. Shock Top Pumpkin Wheat Ale

2. Blue Moon Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale

3. Terrapin Pumpkinfest

4. Dogfish Head Punkin’ Ale

5. Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale

6. Schlafly Pumpkin Ale

7. Southern Tier Pumking

Evaluators:

Me-Novice Beer drinker and new to beer evaluating

Nick Anderson-Beermonger. Beer Expert Evaluator. Author of Beermonger and blogs for ArlNow.

Winners:

1. Schlafly Pumpkin Ale-Had a velvety taste of cinnamon and brown sugar. There was just the right amount of spice which lingered slightly. It was just enough to entice your tastebuds to want some more. And is my number one pick! Too bad they're sold out.

2. Blue Moon Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale-This ale was lighter in color than the others. I couldn't smell any aroma. But it had a nice spicy flavor which only lingered for a second. The reason I choose just this one for my top three was because I like that is wasn't too spicy. This one was the closest to my Bud Light Heart.

3. Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale- This has a nice clear caramel color in the glass and a hidden spicy flavor. The spicy flavor was more than the Schlafly and Blue Moon but was not overpowering. I really enjoyed this beer. 

Losers:

Terrapin Pumpkinfest-This was a dark amber, low foam lager. It was lightly spiced with a heavy taste. It was the heavy taste which put it on my "loser" list. 

Dogfish Head Punkin’ Ale-It was lightly clouded in my glass. It had a spicy taste which I couldn't decide was all spice or cinnamon. This ale was heavier than the Terrapin. 

Southern Tier Pumking-Tasted like a Pumpkin Spice Yankee Candle. Enough said.

Final Thoughts:

All of the beers were good. But as a new beer evaluator I divided them in Winners and Losers. Only one didn't make the Winners or Losers List. Shock Top Pumpkin Wheat. I just couldn't decide if I liked it or not. I guess I need to drink some more of it. :)

Beer tasting is fun. I don’t know why we didn’t do this earlier. But I hope there will be some more pumpkin beer out there so we can do another tasting with pumpkin. Or just regular beer.

Who's with me?