Pumpkin Love Again

When visiting our son in upstate New York this past weekend (Sept 27-28) we visited the Fingerlakes Beverage Company and were astounded by all the brews they had. We noticed a bunch more pumpkin beverages and decided to do a "2014 pumpkin tasting part 2". We picked up 9 different brews.

We decided to do our tasting "flight style", where we poured 4 different types and tasted one at a time. We then could retaste any of those four in determining which was best for the round. 

Our first round had Post Road Pumpkin (Brooklyn 5%), Wolavers Organic Pumpkin Ale (5.35%), Wilhealm Scream Pumpkin Ale (Magic Hat 5.4%) and Captain Lawrence Pumpkin Ale (5.5%).

 At first taste we were leaning towards the Wilhealm Scream - it had a distinctive rich caramel taste but wasn't too sweet (as we found the Post Road to be). 

But in our "retasting" we found that the Wolavers edged ahead - the flavor really popped as the brew warmed a bit. The decision was the Wolavers would win this round. 

Our next round would include Harpoon UFO (unfiltered) pumpkin ale (5.9%), Hudson Valley Fall Hornin' Pumpkin (6%), and Ithaca Brewing Company Pumpkin Ale (6.3%). The later two had unimpressive flavor. The first was very well received - a nice balanced taste with good carbonation. 

Our final round was two heavier brews - Red Hook "Out of Your Gourd" Pumpkin Porter (5.8%) and Fisherman's Pumpkin Stout (7%). 

This was an interesting round. We found the Red Hook was quite heavy and stout-like with a smoky taste. The stout was lighter, more porter like and initially the flavor did not impress. But we found the stout did get better as it warmed up - but the porter won this round. 

Then we went back and revisited the winners of each round.

 After much discussion, it was decided that the Harpoon UFO pumpkin was the clear winner of this tasting.  This was a delicious brew that merits a second look and definitely would be purchased again by our tasters. Check out the particulars from the Harpoon brewery people. Harpoon Brewery

**a footnote - we had earlier tried a pumpkin ale at a local brew pub in Ithaca NY - Bandwagon Brew Pub Pumpkin Ale. It was excellent and we wish we had some to include in this tasting. It might have possibly edged out the UFO. It did have the advantage of being very fresh and on tap. It was delicious! We highly recommend a visit to this pub if you are in Ithaca. Bandwagon Brew Pub

Many thanks to Phil, Nick and Teodora for their tasting expertise in this tasting event. xo