I have decided to do another weekly feature for the blog and
that will be called The Wood Booger’s Top 5. This top five list will be about
anything I want to write about from hiking, vistas, food, beer or whatever else. I have
thought about doing it for a while, so I feel now the time is right. On the
blog I will go from 5-to-1 and give a brief explanation on why it is listed
where it is. I will also add an honorable mention. This could range from
something just missing out to it really not fitting the category (you will see
what I mean). I will try to get this up on Sunday with my ongoing beard blog on
Monday.
Since it is now “officially” fall I am going to christen
this new feature by list my Top 5 Pumpkin Beers. To give the list perspective I
have had 34 pumpkin beers and maybe a dozen more that are pumpkin beer hybrids.
For this list I am focusing just on pumpkin ales.
Honorable Mention: The
beer that gets this honor is
Southern Tier Brewing Company’s Warlock. This
bottle of dark magic was introduced last year and is the combination of
Southern Tier’s famous Pumking and an imperial stout, so it is not really a true
pumpkin ale, but it is oh so good! I gave it a 4.5 rating on
BeerAdvocate. Well,
on to the list.
Number 5: Punkin Ale from
Dogfish Head Brewery. This is one
of the more famous of the pumpkin beers. This Delaware brewery knows a winning
formula. It has good orange color, and has a great pumpkin taste. You can’t go
wrong with this one but there are four better. BeerAdvocate Rating – 4.25.
Number 4: Kentucky Pumpkin Barrel Ale from
Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company. The beer that put this brewery on the map was the
Bourbon Barrel Ale, and they have given there pumpkin beer a similar touch. I will
admit when I had this the first time in a bottle I thought it was good, but it
wasn’t a Top 5. However, few weeks back I had this as part of a flight of beers
at
The Beer Growler in Alpharetta and let me say it blew me away. It was so
good it improved from a 4.0 to a 4.25 (on BeerAdvocate) just passing Punkin
Ale.
Number 3: Rogue Farms Pumpkin Patch Ale from
Rogue Ales. I remember
when I bought this one the main selling points was that Rogue grew their own
pumpkins on their farm in Oregon down the road from the brewery to use in this
beer. Let me tell you it shows. There is freshness to the beer and plenty of
pumpkin flavors. This is definitely a great beer and it more than earned a 4.5 on
BeerAdvocate. As good as it is two are better.
Number 2: Imperial Pumpkin Ale from
Weyerbacher Brewing Company. This one from Pennsylvania is one of my personal favorites (it is
number two after all). The beer itself has smells of nutmeg, cloves and
cinnamon, but features the most important flavor…pumpkin! This has pumpkin
flavor it spades. It also has a nice amber color. There is a reason that its
bottle has a pumpkin with a crown and specter, this beer is fit for a king,
BeerAdvocate rating – 4.5. However there is still one better.
Number 1: Wait for it…
Pumking from Southern Tier. Was there
any doubt, this is IMHO the king of pumpkin beers (that why the jack o’ lantern
on the front has a crown). I remember the first one I had a few years back and
I couldn’t believe it. The best way to describe how Pumking taste, it is like
pumpkin pie in a bottle. That is why my favorite time to have one is after
Thanksgiving dinner with a piece of, you guessed it, pumpkin pie. While the
bottle is good what puts it over the top is when you have a draft growler of
it. If you are going to buy only one pumpkin beer this is it! These guys in New
York know their pumpkin beer craft its BeerAdvocate rating is 4.75.
