It is not that long ago that finding a pumpkin beer at the local beer mart was like finding fresh avocados in Antarctica. It just did not happen. However, in the last few years, pumpkin has basically become the next best thing to chocolate. I mean, you can get pumpkin in just about anything this time of year, and beer is by no means an exception. We thought that will several pumpkin beers hitting the shelves this year, it would be nice to compare them (blindly) to determine a true pumpkin beer king. Obviously, we cannot obtain every pumpkin beer produced in the country since many of them are not distributed in Colorado and/or interstate alcohol regulations prohibit us from acquiring them. When we set out on this venture, we assumed that we would have about 6 to 8 pumpkin beers to sample for this tasting. Well, we were wrong. In fact, we managed to get our hands on 16 different pumpkin beers. These 16 beers come from 12 different breweries since some breweries released multiple pumpkin beers. We also had several different styles of beer in this tasting, including ales, lagers, barrel-aged ales, and even a stout!? One beer in particular that we were not able to attain but is worth noting is Pumking from Southern Tier. While we cannot get Pumking in Colorado, we have had many of them before and it is a solid, well-balanced, (imperial) pumpkin ale.



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The tasting was conducted over four nights (drinking all 16 in one night would have resulted in immediate and certain death). To ensure reduce any bias in the tasting, I drank all the beers blindly. Justine did the pouring and book keeping (although, as you will see below, she did miss a photo . . . but that is due to the large amount of alcohol consumed that night). Let me repeat, I did not know what each beer was until the very end of the tasting. I made an attempt at guessing which beer I was drinking during the tasting (I have had several of these in the past). I was spot on with each guess (assuming that it was a beer that I have had previously).

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The ratings were determined using the following factors: (1) Appearance/Color, (2) Aroma, (3) Sweetness, (4) Spice, and (5) Pumpkeness. Yes, pumpkeness may not be a real word, but after a few pumpkin beers it is super fun to say and really does describe the 5th and final category. Each beer was given a score from 1 to 5 in each category thus making the lowest score a 5 and the highest a 25.

Below is the complete listing of beers with the corresponding scores and tasting notes. The beers are ordered by total points awarded (descending). The winner, by only 2 points was the Oak Jacked Imperial Pumpkin from Uinta’s Crooked Line. This beer is just superb. It has a wonderful balance of pumpkin sweetness and spice as well as the added notes of vanilla and earthiness from the oak. I was very impressed with this beer. Other notable beers were Sam Adams (never expected this beer to rank so high), Rumpkin from Avery (I mean, pumpkin and rum, hello!), Dark O’ The Moon from Elysian (a pumpkin stout, now that is stepping outside the lines), and The No. 1 Pumpkin Ale from Jolly Pumpkin (lovely sour pumpkin ale).

Regardless of your pumpkin beer preferences, we hope that you find this listing and review valuable. While some of these beers are only available in and around Denver, Colorado, most of them should be available from coast to coast. We hope you are able to pick up one or two and enjoy them as much as we did.

Cheers.





Appearance/Color: 5 – Deep reddish-brown

Aroma: 5 – Like pumpkin pie sitting in oak barrels?

Sweetness: 5 – Sweet, wonderful vanilla and pumpkin notes. Lovely.

Spice: 5 – Vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, oh my!

Pumpkeness: 5 – Very oaky, but pumpkin comes through very well and works nicely with the oaky flavors

Total Points: 25

Notes – The only perfect score goes to Uinta’s Crooked Line contribution. And again, Uinta does not let me down and puts out a solid product that you should be racing to the store to buy this minute.



Appearance/Color: 5 – Pumpkin orange

Aroma: 5 – I think that the brewery liquified pumpkin pie and put it in a bottle

Sweetness: 5 – Sweet, crisp, smooth, yum!

Spice: 3 – Spicey aroma but not so much spice on the tongue

Pumpkeness: 5 – I am not sure if I am drinking beer or eating spoonfuls of pumpkin puree

Total Points: 23



Appearance/Color: 4 – Rich, deep reddish-brown

Aroma: 5 – Smells like pumpkin pie in a glass

Sweetness: 4 – Very nice balance between caramel notes and spice

Spice: 5 – Spice squared

Pumpkeness: 5 – Like getting smacked in the face with a pumpkin pie

Total Points: 23

Notes – This was a big surprise . . . I honestly expected the Sam Adams beer to be positioned somewhere around 10th, not tied for second place. Wow.



Appearance/Color: 4 – Golden orange

Aroma: 4 – Cinnamon and possibly ginger notes

Sweetness: 4 – Quite sweet but the spice tames the sweetness quite a bit

Spice: 5 – Almost like eating pumpkin pie spice right out of the jar

Pumpkeness: 4 – Mellow pumpkin flavor that is slightly masked by the spice

Total Points: 21

Note: Sorry for not having a picture for The Great Pumpkin, this was the last beer of the night and neither of us were capable of remembering to take a photo. The label is from Elysian’s site.



Appearance/Color: 4 – Rich brown

Aroma: 5 – Can we say pumpkin pie AND rum!?

Sweetness: 5 – Very sweet and succulent

Spice: 5 – Spice galore!

Pumpkeness: 2 – The rum masks the pumpkin flavors quite a bit

Total Points: 21

Notes – This is the 2011 version of Rumpkin since the 2012 version has not yet been released. While the score is a bit lower than some of the other beers in the list, Rumpkin is a stellar beer and ought to be in a league of its own.



Appearance/Color: 4 – Orangish-brown

Aroma: 4 – Clean, yet spicy

Sweetness: 4 – Subtle sweetness, well-balanced with the spice

Spice: 5 – Packed with more spice than a pumpkin pie

Pumpkeness: 4 – Mellow pumpkin flavor balanced nicely with spice

Total Points: 21



Appearance/Color: 4 – Brilliant orange

Aroma: 4 – Wonderful balance between pumpkin, toasty malt, and spice

Sweetness: 4 – Sweet yet spicy

Spice: 3 – Moderate spice

Pumpkeness: 5 – It is like pumpkins were being given away the day this was brewed

Total Points: 20



Appearance/Color: 4 – Deep Amber

Aroma: 3 – Pumpkin, enough said

Sweetness: 4 – Toasty, not incredibly sweet

Spice: 5 – Incredible amount of spice

Pumpkeness: 4 – Tons of pumpkin

Total Points: 20



Appearance/Color: 4 – Chocolatey brown color

Aroma: 4 – Smells like nutmeg

Sweetness: 4 – Quite malty and toasty

Spice: 4 – Packed with spice (nutmeg and allspice maybe?)

Pumpkeness: 3 – Spices seem to mask the pumpkin flavor quite a bit

Total Points: 19



Appearance/Color: 2 – Very light

Aroma: 4 – Smells like I cut open a pumpkin

Sweetness: 5 – Super sweet

Spice: 3 – Moderate spice (sweetness overpowers the spice)

Pumpkeness: 5 – Pumpkin squared!

Total Points: 19



Appearance/Color: 4 – Light amber, little head

Aroma: 3 – Notes of clove and sweetness

Sweetness: 5 – Very sweet, caramel notes

Spice: 2 – Little spice

Pumpkeness: 4 – Mellow pumpkin flavor

Total Points: 18

Notes – Dry, like champagne



Appearance/Color: 5 – Pumpkin orange

Aroma: 4 – Cloves, nutmeg . . . very strong spice

Sweetness: 1 – Sweet!? This one is super sour!

Spice: 4 – Even with the sourness, a lot of the spices come through well

Pumpkeness: 3 – The sourness masks a lot of the pumpkin

Total Points: 17

Notes – The Jolly Pumpkin contribution is super sour and thus has a lower score. That does not mean that I think poorly of Jolly Pumpkin. In fact, if I were rating these beers not on the basis of their pumpkin characteristics, this one would be second overall, period.



Appearance/Color: 4 – Black as night

Aroma: 4 – Roasted, caramel, toasty

Sweetness: 4 – Sweet, yet slightly bitter, like dark chocolate ice cream

Spice: 3 – Slight notes of cinnamon but masked by the intense roasted malts

Pumpkeness: 2 – Little pumpkin flavor

Total Points: 17

Notes – This is the only stout in the competition. While not scoring very high, the Dark O’ The Moon is definitely one you want to get your hands on if you like stouts.



Appearance/Color: 4 – Orangish-red

Aroma: 1 – Uh, this one smells like a dog?

Sweetness: 5 – Extremely sweet

Spice: 2 – Subtle spices

Pumpkeness: 4 – Lots of pumpkin

Total Points: 16



Appearance/Color: 2 – Very light, almost straw colored

Aroma: 2 – Slight cinnamon/nutmeg notes

Sweetness: 3 – Slight sweetness

Spice: 2 – Little pumpkin pie spice

Pumpkeness: 2 – Very little pumpkin flavor

Total Points: 11

Notes – Tastes cheap (dumped)



Appearance/Color: 3 – Medium amber, very little head

Aroma: 1 – Bland, very bland . . . almost like nothing is in the glass

Sweetness: 3 – Just a touch of sweetness

Spice: 1 – Almost no spice at all

Pumpkeness: 2 – Lacking pumpkin

Total Points: 10

Notes – Almost flat, mass produced tasting (beer was dumped)