If you’ve been to the beer store lately, surely you’ve noticed that it’s the time of year where we have pumpkin beer up to our tonsils. Some of us put on our Charlie Brown T-shirts and cheerfully fill up one or two make-your-own six-packs, while others throw garlic and holy water at the cooler (the latter group might want to avert their eyes for the rest of this article).
For the former group, get out your #2 pencils, and let’s make a shopping list!
Xibalba
Wicked Weed Brewing (Asheville, North Carolina)
Xibalba is an imperial pumpkin ale with an intriguing blend of spices and additions. Cacao nibs, fall spices, and ancho, serrano, and habanero chiles make this an unforgettable selection.
Punk’in Drublic
Coronado Brewing Company (San Diego, California)
For those craving Grandma’s pumpkin pie, Punk’in Drublic is going to be a treat. Coronado brews the beer with locally sourced pumpkin, then adds a secret mix of pumpkin spices.
Vanilla Pumpkin
O’Fallon Brewery (St. Louis, Missouri)
O’Fallon brews the amber ale base beer for their Vanilla Pumpkin, then adds pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. But the locally produced Madascar Bourbon Vanilla that’s added lends a “pumpkin pie with ice cream” type of flavor.
Pumpkin Ale
Schlafly Beer (St. Louis, Missouri)
Brewed with pumpkin and all the right spices to go with it, this pumpkin ale rocks an 8 percent ABV, and is full-bodied, sweet, and flavorful.
Rumpkin
Avery Brewing Company (Boulder, Colorado)
The pumpkins for Rumpkin were harvested from a local farm. The beer was spiced with aromatic pumpkin pie spices and ginger, then left to ferment in rum barrels, which added oak and sweet molasses to the beer’s overall character.
Scratch 79 – Pumpkin Ale
Tröegs Independent Brewing (Hershey, Pennsylvania)
After harvesting pumpkins from nearby Strites Orchard, Tröegs roasted them, added autumnal spices, then sweetened things up with sugar, honey, and vanilla. Finally, they fermented Scratch 79 – Pumpkin Ale with French saison yeast, and the finished beer has an 8.4 percent ABV.
Warlock
Southern Tier Brewing Company (Lakewood, New York)
If an imperial stout is more to your liking, Warlock is blacker than night and clocks in at 10 percent ABV. It’s brewed with pumpkin and spices, and has a lovely roasted malt character.
Punkuccino Coffee Pumpkin Ale
Elysian Brewing (Seattle, Washington)
When a pumpkin latte isn’t enough, Punkuccino has you covered. Stumpton coffee and coffee malt add roastiness to the beer, with cinnamon and nutmeg for spice, and lactose for sweetness. And you get pumpkin to the third power—it’s added to the mash, the kettle, and the fermentor.
Dark Pumpkin Sour
Almanac Beer Company (San Francisco, California)
A dark sour ale with a roasty flavor, Dark Pumpkin Sour is brewed with heirloom pumpkins and spices, then it’s aged in red wine barrels for a year. It’s fermented with wild Belgian and American yeast strains, as well as a San Francisco sourdough starter, all of which create a complex flavor profile.
Rum Pumpkin
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery (Richmond, Virginia)
Warm up with this imperial ale, which is brewed with pumpkins, brown sugar, spiced rum, blackstrap molasses, and pumpkin pie spice. Rum Pumpkin is then aged in Caribbean dark rum barrels and bottled when it’s perfect.
We’d love to know your favorite pumpkin beers for 2016!