Name: Scythe Brewing Company: The Drowned Lands Location: Warwick, NY Style: Pumpkin/Yam Beer | Foeder Fermented Pumpkin Ale ABV: 5.7%
The young Hudson Valley Brewery has crafted one of the best Pumpkin Beers I’ve ever had.
From The Drowned Lands’s feature page for the beer:
Pouring a deep and vibrant orange color, and bursting with all the aromas you’d expect in a pumpkin ale. Brewed with a blend of Vienna and Munich malts as a base, and then layered in Biscuit, Red Wheat, and Spelt malts to give the beer a nice bready pie crust. We then added pumpkin to the whirlpool and fermented it with our house yeast. After fermentation, we conditioned this pumpkin filled pie crust with handfuls of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and clove.
Since I visited the Drowned Lands last summer (2021), I’ve been eager to try more of their beers and while their IPAs are very well-regarded, I wanted to try something outside of a hop-forward beer. When I saw that the newish liquor store down the road from me had this beer in stock, I knew one of my new Pumpkin beers for 2022 would be Scythe. It far exceeded my expectations.
Well, what is Scythe?
The beer pours a translucent orange yellow into my Pumpkinhead glass, fully looking the part of a pumpkin ale. There’s a thin head, maybe the width of a #2 pencil. I take a whiff and the spices come through quite nicely, cinnamon, a little bit of clove, maybe some ginger. So far, so good.
I notice some floaties in the beer, maybe from the pumpkin or the spices? Not a negative point, but something noticeable. That first sip… boy oh boy is that a smooth tasting beer. The silky smoothness I’d expect from a perfectly baked pumpkin pie my made. I’m very impressed with how balanced that first sip of Scythe travels across my palate.
There are prominent elements of cinnamon, clove, and of course pumpkin. Many beers categorized as “Pumpkin” beers simply have the spices associated with Pumpkin and Pumpkin Pie. Scythe is made with pumpkin and that shines through in the taste and flavor profile. Nutmeg is listed and often, Nutmeg can leave a fairly strong, lingering aftertaste for me. Thankfully, the fine and talented craftspeople at the Drowned Lands concocted a well-balanced mélange of spices, which prevents any one spice from overpowering the other spices.
Pumpkin beers dominate the shelves from August through October/November to a very overwhelming level. This has; unfortunately, set something of a mark against the style. Early in my Craft Beer Journey, I anticipated pumpkin beer season every year, but that aforementioned early onslaught cooled my eagerness for the style. That said, any style when done well, is worth seeking out. With Scythe, The Drowned Lands may have crafted an ideal Pumpkin Beer. It has near perfect balance of all the elements, lives up to the “pumpkin pie in a glass” moniker, but is still most certainly a beer. If I’m making a Mount Rushmore of Pumpkin Beers, Scythe would very likely find itself on that mount.
Pumpkin beers—trick or treat? Yes, this style is polarizing, but love ‘em or hate ‘em pumpkin beers are an iconic part of the fall season. Try giving the gourd some love this October!?
Our favorite Halloween tradition is brewing Ghoulschip with fresh, local pumpkins, molasses, and raw pumpkin seeds. On All Hallows’ Eve itself, we send the beer to rest among the specters in our Coolship, where it collects wild microflora from the chill Maine air. The beer then ferments in a stainless tank on our house yeast before heading into oak barrels, where it sits in waiting for up to three years.
Although Ghoulschip isn’t spontaneously fermented, we rely on natural microflora to sour it. The finished product is a blend of one-, two-, and three-year-old beer. In the first sip, caramelized malt and a mild acidity balance Ghoulschip’s subtle earthiness. The finish of this light golden beer is dry and tart. Boo!.
Two weeks in a row and two Pumpkin themed beers? Am I becoming basic? No…anything but, I’d like to think because this particular beer is far, far from your basic “Pumpkin Beer.” But when you look beyond some of the core beers from Allagash, that’s what you see, beers far from basic. One of the styles/methods they’ve drawn considerable respect and acclaim is their open fermentation/funky/wild beers, or Coolship beers. This beer is a play on the style and the name, just in time for Hallowee’en and spooky season.
The beer pours like I’d expect a saison to pour, bright yellow with a fluffy head that exhibits aggressive growth. In fact, a friend who had this recently wasn’t expecting such a “saison-ish” beer and frankly, that’s what drew me to the beer even more.
Aroma is a little funky with maybe some underlying pumpkin.
First sip is quite pleasant and gives an acidic tang, which isn’t what one expects from a pumpkin beer. The finish of that first sip is sweet and fruity, with hints of the pumpkin, maybe hints of fruit juice with vanilla / oak bringing a lot of these flavor elements together.
The flavors in this beer are damned interesting, there’s definitely more funk than pumpkin. The label/description indicates molasses was add to the beer, which I suspect enhances the pumpkin and increases the sweetness. That sweetness balances the funky/tart element of the beer quite nicely.
The fruit element expresses itself very strongly on the finish, which makes me want to go through this bottle rather quickly. Ghoulschip is relatively high an ABV at 8.7% so finishing this one too quickly would be a shame because it is one you want to appreciate for the relative oddness of the beer..
Pumpkin Spice Morning Bell, brewed in collaboration with Rook Coffee, is our 9.2% Imperial Milk Porter conditioned on Rook’s dark roast coffee and their aromatic blend of fall spices. Last year was the first year releasing Pumpkin Spice Morning Bell, and we’re excited to have it back since it was such a crowd favorite.
Kane has made many appearances here at the Tap Takeover, but this is only the second full-out review I’ve posted of one of their beers.
Morning Bell is one of Kane’s most popular beers – a top 5 beer on untappd for them, and their top dark beer. The base beer is a “Milk Porter” meaning a porter made with lactose and as this is a coffee-infused beer, coffee is also part of the ingredient list. In this case, Kane uses coffee beans from Rook Coffee, one of the more respected independent coffee roasters in New Jersey. Over the years, Kane has brewed and released several variants (the Morning Mocha variant was one of my top beers last year). With the overwhelming popularity of the PSL (Pumpkin Spice Latte) and pumpkin flavor, Kane all but had to do this variant.
The beer pours a little thicker than I would expect a porter to pour, which is not a bad thing. I get some of those pumpkin spice aromas, particularly cinnamon.
The first sip…wow. Impressive and gives me the autumnal vibes. As I said, I’ve had the base version of this beer (Morning Bell) in the past and one of the elements that carries over to this variant is the smooth creaminess of the beer. Michael Kane and his brewing magicians have such a great hand with many things and with the Morning Bell family of beers that deft hand comes through in adding the perfect amount of lactose. That creaminess also balances out the coffee portion of the beer, too.
The more I drink this beer, the more I enjoy it. The “pumpkin spice” flavors come through even more deliciously. I’ve come to realize I’m not a big fan of nutmeg and even that spice works in the beer for me. This all points to the balance on the overall flavor profile of Pumpkin Spice Morning Bell. By the time I’ve finished the last drop of the beer, I’ve come to realize this might be the best “Pumpkin Spice” or Pumpkin adjacent beer I’ve ever had.
Like many of Kane’s beers, this one is available only at the brewery.
Back in 2014 we had the good fortune of finding a cache of rum barrels which we quickly filled with Pumking making what was affectionately called “Rumking.” We were lucky to have found more barrels, and in 2018, found some of the best we’ve ever used. This batch is at least as delicious as versions past.
Imagine our inimitable Imperial Pumking Ale as the captain on the high seas, flying the Jolly Roger. The ‘King sails for ports unknown in this limited release. Rum Barrel Aged Pumking has been kept like secret treasure in the hollows of the brewery, patiently awaiting discovery. Yo ho ho!
Enjoy Rum Barrel Aged Pumking now, or keep it hidden standing upright in a dark and cool place until you can say ‘anchors aweigh!’
Drinkers who enjoy pumpkin beer, especially those in the Northeast, may have asked themselves when reading my post about pumpkin last week, “What not even one of Southern Tier’s Pumking offerings?” After all Southern Tier is one of the leading brewers of the “dessert beer / pastry stout” style of beers and Pumking has been making the rounds for over 10 years now (2007). Well, I’d wanted to try one of the variants for the past couple of years and decided to go with the biggest one of them all, the Rum Barrel Aged variant (represented by the Pirate Pumking on the far right in the image below).
The Pumking family of icons.
I’ve had the regular version, Pumking seemingly every other year and for a while Warlock was actually my favorite pumpkin beer (until they changed the recipe last year). It is still a good beer (or was last year), but enough about the other members of Pumking’s family. The remainder of this post focuses on Rum Barrel Aged Pumking, which is now part of the “Barrel House Series” at Southern Tier.
The beer pours a perfect golden orange, hinting at the pumpkin and rum flavor. As I brought the glass to my nose, I was punched in the face with the strong, sweet aroma of rum. When I gave another whiff, I was punched again by that sweet rum aroma. Did I mention the beer has a strong aroma of rum? Because there’s a lot of rum on the nose of this beer.
The nose doesn’t lie…my first sip was a big hit of rum, sweetness (maybe a little big of brown sugar?) and some pumpkin spice. Most of the barrel aged beers I’ve had are in the whiskey family – bourbon, rye, or whiskey. I typically don’t gravitate to rum, not that I don’t like it, just not my thing. But here, the rum is a welcoming warmth.
The pumpkin spices come in after the beer sits for a bit, and the full pumpkin character shines or glows. There’s a line of sweetness that the rum enhances in the typical pumpkin spice character, which makes for a really unique take on a pumpkin beer. Or at least for my palette and 50+ pumpkin beers I’ve consumed over the years.
Another thing I found impressive about the beer is that the character of the base beer – Pumking – is still very strong despite the big punch of rum. Pumking has always stood out from other pumpkin beers for me – something about the spice and nuttiness (I’d almost say pecan-like) sets it apart. This really is like Pumking turned up to 11, so if you like Pumking, chances are very good you’ll enjoy this beer.
I feel like the statement I’ve most often made on this blog is to let the beer warm and get closer to room temperature. Well, the statement applies here to the Rum Barrel Aged Pumking. To the point that I’d recommend letting the beer sit for five or ten minutes before fully enjoying it.
At 13.4% ABV, this is either one to share or enjoy over the course of an evening. I took almost the entirety of watching a really good horror movie (The Witch, a little over 90 minutes) to enjoy the beer. Given that letting the beer sit in the glass allows the beer to breathe and the flavors to come alive, you’ll want to take your time with it, too.
I’ve recounted how much I enjoy Southern Tier’s beer in the past, but this is the first “new to me” beer from them I’ve had in almost a year (last year’s new take on Warlock and 3 Citrus Peel Out) but overall, I’ve had nearly 30 beers from the venerable NY brewery and this is a standout from them and worth hunting down.
Fall is in the air and the holidays are just around the corner, but pies and jack-o-lanterns aren’t the only things pumpkins are good for. Pumpkin beers have grown in popularity, bringing with them a delicate balance of malt and spices. That’s 55 different beers with the style of Pumpkin / Yam!
Draught Diversions is the catchall label for mini-rants, think-pieces, and posts that don’t just focus on one beer here at The Tap Takeover. We hope you don’t grow too weary of the alcohol alliterative names we use…
I realized I sort of railed against pumpkin beers in the past, but in all honesty, I do enjoy a well-crafted pumpkin ale. I have had about 50 since joining untappd, after all. Like any style, when fresh, well cultivated ingredients are used to make a well-made beer, good results are very likely. There was a time when fall would arrive and I’d try to consume as many pumpkin beers as possible, but the enormous glut of the style has had the opposite effect and caused me to take a step back. However, I’ve been in a pumpkin mood so, without further adieu, here’s a six-pack of Pumpkin beers I’d recommend or try. Some may be familiar to many, others maybe not so much. As with most of types of six-pack posts, I’ve had some on the post and want to try the others.
Technically not quite a pumpkin beer as the beer is made with yams, but since untappd lumps pumpkin beers and yam beers into one category, who am I to argue. Anyway, I had the “sibling” beer, Autumn Maple, last year (as my 1,000th unique check into untapped) and really enjoyed it, so this one is high on my list to try. The Bruery’s beers are distributed here in NJ, so hopefully I’ll have no trouble finding it.
What The Bruery says about the beer:
The nights are getting darker and autumn is in its element. This variation of our fall seasonal brings both forces together for a limited time. Midnight Autumn Maple is a dark imperial ale brewed with midnight wheat, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, vanilla, maple syrup and a whole lot of yams.
Punkin’ Ale Dogfish Head Craft Brewery (Milton, DE)
Image courtesy of Dogfish Head’s web site
Yeah, Dogfish again, I know. But Dogfish’s Punkin’ Ale is an annual tradition for many and one of the first pumpkin ales on the market in the mid-90s craft boon to still be available. I had a bottle last year and seem to have a few every other year.
What Dogfish says about the beer:
Every Beer Has A Story… here’s Punkin Ale
A full-bodied brown ale with smooth hints of pumpkin and brown sugar. We brew our Punkin Ale with pumpkin meat, brown sugar and spices. As the season cools, this is the perfect beer to warm up with.
Punkin Ale is named after the seriously off-centered southern Delaware extravaganza Punkin Chunkin (check out some of these Discovery Channel videos of Punkin Chunkin, you gotta see it to believe it!). In fact, Punkin Ale made its debut as it claimed first prize in the 1994 Punkin Chunkin Recipe Contest. Yes, that was a full 6 months before we even opened our doors for business! Punkin Chunkin has grown in size and scale, with pumpkins now being hurled more than 4,000 feet through the air! If you come down to see if for yourself, drop by and visit us.
Since its debut, we’ve brewed Punkin Ale each and every fall. It is released right around Sept. 1 each year. When you find it, grab some extra because it’s usually gone by Thanksgiving.
I can’t confirm if Kane still brews this for the fall season every year. Photo courtesy of Kane’s Facebook page.
Of the growing number of breweries in New Jersey over the past half dozen years or so, few (if any) have as stellar a reputation as does Kane Brewing. Their IPA (Head High) is iconic and their barrel-aged stouts and dark ales are some of the most sought after in the country. They got into the “pumpkin” game with this big bastard of a beer clocking in at 9.2%. While not exactly made with pumpkins, the harvest fruits of butternut squash and sweet potatoes make for an enticing ale. Hell, just read the description below, because it just has me drooling in anticipation. This may be the most difficult beer on this six pack for me to acquire, I hope I’m able to grab it. (I’m not even sure Kane still brews this one).
What Kane says about the beer (from untappd):
Fall Saints, our new 9.2% autumn seasonal on tap. Fall Saints began with a late summer day here on the coast roasting 200+ pounds of butternut squash and sweet potatoes in a wood fired brick oven in Asbury Park. Back at the brewery, we added caramel malts, the squash and potatoes, and maple syrup to our base of imported pilsner malt to create a unique imperial ale for the changing of the seasons. Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla beans form the backbone of a carefully measured blend of spices – cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and allspice – that was added to create a bold and flavorful beer enjoyable throughout the autumn season and beyond.
Lancaster was a go-to brewery for me for a couple of years, I really like their Milk Stout and Strawberry Wheat. I continue to see this one on shelves in my area, but have yet to try it despite the fairly decent rating on untappd. Hopefully I’ll see a loose bottle in a make-your-own sixpack spot.
What Lancaster Brewing says about the beer:
Have your pie and drink it too! Bold in flavor with a deep amber color, our big Baked Pumpkin Ale is sure to remind you of Grandma’s pumpkin pie. Its lasting vanilla finish will leave your taste buds craving another.
If Dogfish made one of the earliest Pumpkin Ales, then Weyerbacher’s is probably the first pumpkin ale I can recall having on an annual basis. This could probably even be considered a “classic of the genre,” if you will. They’ve been brewing this one for over a dozen years and is probably my top pumpkin beer year-over-year. That said, I haven’t had an Imperial Pumpkin Ale in far too long so I may have to remedy that.
What Weyerbacher says about the beer:
We set out to make a bold monument for The King of the Pumpkins!
This 8.0% ABV pumpkin ale is the mother of all pumpkin ales. It is heartier, spicier and more “caramelly” and “pumpkiny” than its faint brethren! We have added lots of pumpkin along with cinnamon, nutmeg and a touch of cardamom and clove, giving this beer a spicy, full-bodied flavor.
This truly is an Imperial Pumpkin Ale. Perfect finisher on a cool autumn night or match it up with a slice of pumpkin pie and fresh whipped cream.
New label for the beer, image courtesy of Whole Hog’s web site.
This is one of the higher-rated pumpkin beers on untappd and one that seems to please people who typically don’t go in for the pumpkin beers. In fact, it received the silver medal for Pumpkin Beer at the most recent (2018) Great American Beer Festival. I’ve had a few beers from Stevens Point (mainly the “Whole Hog” beers) and liked them so I may have to seek this one from the Wisconsin brewery. In fact, I think I may have had this before I joined untappd so it may be a case of reacquainting myself with the beer. According to untappd, this is also the most popular or “checked in” beer from Stevens Point Brewery.
What Stevens Point says about the beer:
Of all the gold medal-winning pumpkin ales, one factor sets Whole Hog apart: spice. Savory pumpkin pie spices, natural cinnamon, nutmeg, and real pumpkin are perfectly balanced in this sweet, fully enveloping Pumpkin Ale.
I think this is a fairly decent group of pumpkin beers, are there any you like? There’s a pretty good chance I’ll have a pumpkin beer in my review next week, too.
Draught Diversions is the catchall label for mini-rants, think-pieces, and posts that don’t just focus on one beer here at The Tap Takeover. We hope you don’t grow too weary of the alcohol alliterative names we use…
Now for a seasonally appropriate review of a variety pack of pumpkin beers less than a week before Hallowe’en, the O’Fallon Pumpkin Pack.
O’Fallon Brewery, based in Missouri, has been crafting ales and lagers since 2000 including their regionally popular Pumpkin Beer. Unfortunately, only select beers of their output are distributed here in NJ, although I recall seeing their pumpkin beers last year and I did pick up a bomb of their Imperial Stout earlier in the year. Two particular beers in this “Pumpkin Patch” pushed me to get the variety pack, the Jack O’Latte Milk Stout and Pumpkin Bread Dunkelweizen. So, how did the whole variety pack fare? Like most variety packs some beers were, of course, better than others, but not in ways that I expected. I’ll give a mini-review of each below leading up to the one I enjoyed the most.
The beer I had first was the Pumpkin Bread, as I’ve said in some posts, I really like Dunkelweizens so I’m always on the lookout for a new Dunkel to try. In the case of O’Fallon’s Pumpkin Bread, there are definitely bready elements of the Dunkelweizen but a lot of the expected finishing notes (clove/banana) are masked or altogether not present due to the pumpkin / pumpkin spice elements. As I commented on untappd, it does exactly what the label suggests, evokes the flavor profile of pumpkin bread. That said, there’s something not quite there for me. Not a bad beer, just not quite what I’d hoped.
Next up (and the one I tried last) was the standard Pumpkin Beer, which was a perfectly acceptable pumpkin ale. It didn’t blow me away but it didn’t leave an aftertaste like some pumpkin ales can leave. Better than many pumpkin beers I’ve had, not quite as good as a few others, and one I’d rank in the top half of the many pumpkin beers I’ve had. In other words, a pumpkin ale I’d reach for again. I can understand why this is a local favorite in the State of Missouri, this is a very drinkable ale. This would be for relaxing by a fire pit whilst enjoying a few while the night begins to cool.
The one that surprised me the most was Saison De Citrouille. Citrouille is French for Pumpkin, and as the name implies, this is a Saison/Farmhouse brewed with pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices. While I enjoy Saison/Farmhouse Ales, they aren’t one of my “go to” styles. Sometimes, this style can have a bitter, earthy aftertaste that I find unpleasant. On the other hand, some of the lighter Saisons I’ve had are more crisp with a bit of a fruitiness to the flavor profile. O’Fallon’s take on the style is a nice variation and melding of styles, the pumpkin spices blend really well with esters in the beer, complementing each other for a balanced, tasty beer. A perfect beer for those early fall days that still have some warm winds and sun leftover from the summer.
Last is Jack O’Latte and the beer from this variety pack I enjoyed the most. There was a time I loved pumpkin flavored coffee and would have it every day once the leaves started changing. Since the Pumpkin Spice overkill began a few years ago (coupled with Dunkin Donuts drastically altering its flavorings), I slowed that roll and mostly drink dark roast coffee. Anyway, back to this beer… Jack O’Latte does everything right with those flavors: a stout sweetened with lactose, further enhanced with pumpkin / pumpkin pie spices for a beer that makes you want more. If this were available in 6-packs, I would make sure to pick up a pack every fall. In the end, isn’t that what a brewery tried to do with the beer it produces?
The final verdict: The O’Fallon Pumpkin Pack is worth trying if you enjoy pumpkin beers and are looking to sample a variety of styles with pumpkin/pumpkin spice flavors. Each beer is good with the Saison De Citrouille and Jack O’Latte very good. I it is impressive, on the whole, how well O’Fallon blends the pumpkin flavors into a variety of typically non-pumpkin styles.
Our Pumpkin Ale blends the spices of the harvest with full-bodied sweetness for a beer that tastes like pumpkin pie. Pounds of pumpkin form a malty foundation that supports the fall flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg and clove.
While pumpkin beers were produced in the early days of the American colonies, they were different from the pumpkin beers we know today. Colonists used pumpkin and squash as the fermenting medium, since malted barley was scarce. Once malt became more readily available, it replaced these alternatives to grain. In the 1990’s, American craft brewers reintroduced the style to the delight of pumpkin beer drinkers.
Pumpkin Beers are one of the more looked-down-upon styles in American Craft beer, it seems there are just as many articles in the beer-writing community decrying the style as there are variations on the style. I’ve even written one such article myself, although it was more about the ridiculous and overwhelmingly early placement of the beers in stores and not about the style itself. As I say in that post, I enjoy pumpkin beers as much as I enjoy many other styles. When done well, a pumpkin beer can be a wonderful tasting beer, just like this fine ale from Schlafly in Saint Louis, MO. The best brewery in Saint Louis.
While Schlalfly may be overshadowed in sheer size by a certain Clydesdale wagon-pulling brewery in Saint Louis, the overall quality of Schlafly more than makes up for it. I’ve had a handful of brews from them, over 50 pumpkin beers since joining untappd, and Schlafly’s is probably the most consistent tasting over the years and an example of how the straightforward approach with the relatively standard components of a pumpkin beer can produce a very tasty beer which, ultimately, has set the bar for the style.
The aroma of the pumpkin pie spices wafts from the bottle as it pours into the glass. The beer is a lovely amber-orange, exactly what to expect with a pumpkin ale. A small head atop makes for a nice presentation that is surpassed by the taste.
The spices and pumpkin are upfront and present throughout the beer. What I appreciated most about this specific Pumpkin Ale is the added sweetness. Some pumpkin beers can have a slight bitter aftertaste or (all I can think of) is too much earthiness. The added sweetness in Schlafly’s version balances out and just about removes that aftertaste. The end result is the gold standard for Pumpkin Ales, or in this case Orange-Amber standard.
I’ve had other pumpkin ales (over 50, according to untappd) and for the straight-up Pumpkin Ale, just about all others are in the shadow of what Schlafly has been consistently brewing for years. The recipe seems relatively unchanged and the beer is model of Autumnal consistency.
Only one other pumpkin beer for me hits as many notes as well as this one does and that one is technically not a Pumpkin Ale, but rather a stout with Pumpkins and the associated spices.
Brewed with 15 lbs. of yams per barrel (in other words, a lot of yams!), this autumn seasonal is a different take on the “pumpkin” beer style. Cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, vanilla, maple syrup, and fermentation with our traditional Belgian yeast strain, make this bold and spicy beer perfect for a cold autumn evening.
We have also created bourbon barrel-aged, barrel-fermented, and darker variations of Autumn Maple.
A shift to a California brewery this time around, The Bruery. A brewery known for big, bold, flavorful brews distributed in what seems to only be 750mL bottles and draft. I’ve never seen any of their beers in 12 oz bottles here in New Jersey. I’ve seen many of their bomber bottles and have had two of their “Days of Christmas” series and loved both. I recently received a promotion at work and my wife, knowing what kinds of beers I enjoy, picked me up a bottle of this in congratulations. The timing was also perfect as I was approaching unique check-in #1,000 on untappd. I figured this beer would be a perfect celebration of both of those things and I was correct in that assumption. As you can see by the screen-grab to the right, Autumn Maple was my 1,000th unique beer on untappd.
As the name of this beer indicates, Autumn Maple is an annual Fall / Autumn release. It pours very brown and a little bit cloudy, not the brownish-orange-amber of many fall beers like Oktoberfests or Pumpkin beers. The first thing that struck me with this beer was the Belgian yeast, it came through in the aroma along with the spices associated with pumpkin beers (cinnamon and nutmeg in particular) even if this isn’t really a pumpkin beer. The longer I breathed in the aroma, the more I could smell the spices and knew this could be a really tasty beer. That aroma did not lead me astray.
The presence of the Belgian yeast is up front in the taste, too. A quite potent presence at that. But then the spices come through and there’s a nice intermingling of the cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla with that yeast strain that is quite interesting. I don’t quite get the taste of the yams (despite 15 pounds of them) as much as the spices, but they give the beer an added earthiness and weight. Even when I have candied yams or sweet potatoes they act more as a delivery mechanism for the other flavors.
The beer is a big one, not just in the size of the bottle, but ABV at 10%. I wound up enjoying this one gradually and I slowed down even more once I realized how much more flavorful the beer was once it had the chance to air out, warm up, and have more open space for the flavor components to play together. Those spices played even more with the yeasts to make this a very, very tasty beer. For an unfiltered beer, there wasn’t really much sediment at the bottom of the glass, good or bad.
The label says this is a “Belgian Brown Ale” but the beer sites consider it a Pumpkin/Yam/Vegetable beer. I don’t care how Autumn Maple is categorized, because quite frankly, I found it to be a unique, delicious beer. Definitely an out-of-the-box take on the traditional fall Pumpkin beer, I can see myself returning to this beer every Autumn.
It was an early September evening when I enjoyed this beer, a cool evening that felt more like Autumn than late summer. This is a beer to drink alone while you are engrossed in a great, enjoyable book for a couple of hours (as I was) or one to share with a friend or family member over a hearty, Autumn meal or as a desert beer following that same hearty meal.
Draught Diversions is the catchall label for mini-rants, think-pieces, and posts that don’t just focus on one beer here at The Tap Takeover. We hope you don’t grow too weary of the alcohol alliterative names we use…
Time for me to get a little ranty here at the Tap Takeover. Most of my posts have been positive so this is a bit of a heel turn. However, based on some conversations with other hop-heads, I don’t think I’m alone in what I’m about to rant about.
Seasonally appropriate beers. I’ve written quite a bit about summer beers, largely because I began this blog in May. I enjoy all the seasonally appropriate beers – especially Oktoberfest beers (in September and October), as well as the pumpkin beers and Christmas/Winter beers (From September through January, there’s overlap between pumpkins and winter warmers). But what frustrates me is seeing Pumpkin Beers on the shelf in July. Or seeing Summer Beers on shelves in March and April. Hell, my own father had a six pack of Oktoberfest in his fridge this past weekend!
This is just a sad bunch of pumpkins. They know they shouldn’t be in a pool, just like pumpkin beer shouldn’t be on shelves in July & August.
Like I said, I enjoy Pumpkin beers quite a bit. After all, I’ve had close to 50 different Pumpkin beers S.J.U.* But there’s a cognitive dissonance when it comes to sitting in my pool and drinking a pumpkin beer. It just shouldn’t be.
S.J.U.* is my short hand for Since Joining Untappd. I joined in February 2014.
What I’ll call Seasonally Inappropriate Beer is something that’s been going on for years, it seems. Each brewery wants to get their seasonal beers on shelves a little earlier, driving other brewers to push out their seasonal beers earlier. If you look at the release calendars of some brewers, they have July as their Pumpkin release! There are a couple of problems with this, aside from the whole cognitive dissonance issue. It is one thing to do a “Christmas in July” type of thing, a few bars not too far from me did special tappings of Tröeg’s Mad Elf in July. But that is a one-time event.
NO PUMPKIN BEERS BEFORE SEPTEMBER!!!
For starters, this early release creates an excess of one thing drowning out all other varieties. First one brewery puts out a pumpkin beer in July, then in early August another Pumpkin beer will appear. Before Labor Day, a shelf that should still have Summer/warm weather beers*, is half full of pumpkin beers.
*Oh I don’t know it is still warm and people’s pools are open and pumpkin is a fall and post-Labor Day food thing.
Second, by putting out the seasonally inappropriate beer too early, the beers may not last as long on the shelves and saving them until the season syncs up with the beer may allow the beer to taste less fresh. Again, I’ll call out pumpkin beers largely because I think there are too many pumpkin beers now, even though I do enjoy them. Pumpkins aren’t just a fall flavor/food, as far as I and I think many people are concerned. Pumpkin Pie goes just as well on a Christmas dessert table as it does on a Thanksgiving dessert table. As would Pumpkin beer, but with the pumpkin beers being released so early (July!!!), pumpkin fatigue can hit. While I always try to wait until *at least* September to enjoy pumpkin beer, by the time November rolls around, stores and breweries are already pushing Christmas Ales. Oktoberfest beers are a slightly different story, largely because they don’t seem to be quite as prevalent now as pumpkin beers are. I’ll usually pick up several Oktoberfest six packs…when mid September rolls around.
I don’t think this is just one craft beer drinker’s opinions. So, what are we to do? Boycott something we enjoy? Then we’re depriving ourselves. It is a frustrating thing, just like seeing commercials for Summer beers in March was earlier this year. What really set it off for me this year was seeing a 2017 pumpkin beer in my local liquor store a week or two after the Fourth of July.
Right. I know this is a silly thing to be ranting about, because I can (and do) easily reach past the Pumpkin beers to grab other beers I’d rather have that are more seasonally appropriate.
I’ll end this with a confession…as much as I’ve ranted about seeing the pumpkin beers now, writing about these pumpkin beers has me looking forward to trying a few new ones in month and a half and returning to some old favorites. I’m looking at you Southern Tier Warlock, Two Roads Roadsmary’s Baby, Schlafly Pumpkin Ale, and River Horse Hipp O Lantern.
The Tap Takeover 