The Armchair Quarterback’s Guide To The NFL: Week 4

The Armchair Quarterback Food/Drink/Tailgating Suggestion Of The Week

Pumpkin Beer

Two weeks ago I gave my advice on getting people (who hadn’t done so already) to try the wonderful world of craft beers. This week I’m going to review a few specific seasonal beers that have now officially hit shelves for the fall, pumpkin beers.

I enjoy pumpkin beers for a couple of reasons. First, they have a unique flavor profile that you won’t find in any other beers during the rest of the year. While they wouldn’t be my number one beer of choice if they were available year round, their uniquely fall inspired flavors are perfect for this time of year. Second, a good pumpkin beer is the perfect dessert beer for me. They are good tasting, without being overly fruity or sweet (if done right). Finally, if you are like me, and occasionally tailgate before a noon start NFL game, I find that sometimes I’m not ready for a traditional beer at 9-10am. However, a good pumpkin beer on a crisp fall morning can be a good way to get your tailgate started while you’re waiting for the grills to fire up.

For today’s Armchair Quarterback, I’ve sampled four different pumpkin beers: Shock Top Pumpkin Wheat (made by Anheuser-Busch), Blue Moon Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale (made by Coors Brewing), Pumpkick (made by New Belgium Brewing), and Frog’s Hollow Double Pumpkin Ale (made by the Hoppin’ Frog Brewery).

For each beer, I’ll give you a few short thoughts, a personal rating on a scale of 1-10, and the beer’s rating from beeradvocate.com (which is a great place to go if you want really detailed reviews of beers by people that know what they’re talking about). I’ll go in order from my least favorite to favorite.

Shock Top Pumpkin Wheat

I’m not impressed. It tastes pretty bland to me. The pumpkin taste is pretty mild. There is a mix of pumpkin pie spices like nutmeg and cinnamon that’s pretty evident, but there’s almost an artificial taste to it.

My score (1-10): 5
Beeradvocate (1-100): 72

Pumpkick

Even though this beer isn’t bad, I was disappointed that I didn’t like it more. New Belgium is one of my favorite breweries and I’m a big fan of some of their regular beers (Fat Tire, 1554, Abbey, etc.). This is advertised as a pumpkin beer with a “kick”. The kick being the addition of cranberry. It sounds good in theory, pumpkin pie and cranberries are both part of a sit down family fall meal, right? It just didn’t quite work in execution for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a decent beer, but I was hoping for a home run. The cranberry and cinnamon and nutmeg flavors don’t quite mix for me, and the pumpkin kind of gets lost in the shuffle. I would definitely drink it again if I was offered one because it is a unique take on the genre, but if I’m in the mood for a pumpkin beer, this wouldn’t be the one I was craving.

My score (1-10): 6.5
Beeradvocate (1-100): 77

Blue Moon Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale

The craft beer enthusiast in me wanted to like the New Belgium beer more than this mass produced Coors product, but it’s just not the case. If you’re looking for a reasonably priced, easy to find, good tasting pumpkin beer, this is the one. If I’m being picky, my complaint would be that it tastes more like pumpkin pie spices than it does actual pumpkin. However, the combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice make it a good dessert beer. If I was at a liquor store with a limited selection and the only pumpkin beers available were the Shock Top and the Blue Moon, it’s Blue Moon hands down for me.

My score (1-10): 7.5
Beeradvocate (1-100): 71

Frog’s Hollow Double Pumpkin Ale

This was my favorite. However, it’s probably the most difficult to find if you don’t live near a liquor store with a big selection. It was also by far the priciest. It was only available in a pint size bottle for $9.95. That’s $2-3 dollars more than an entire six pack of the Blue Moon. That having been said, it was by far the most “authentic” tasting. This was the only one that I tried where the pumpkin flavor was the star of the show. It also has the cinnamon and nutmeg type pumpkin pie spices, but in this beer they enhance the pumpkin flavor instead of hide it. It’s also by far the strongest of the beers with 8.4% alcohol. You can taste the alcohol more than the others, but it didn’t take away at all from the taste for me. This is the type of pumpkin beer that I start to crave when the first cool fall days of the year roll around. Let’s put it this way, I’ll be attending the Chiefs/Browns game on October 27th and there’s a good chance that a bottle of this may make it’s way to our tailgate.

My score (1-10): 9
Beeradvocate (1-100): 86

If you’ve tried a pumpkin beer that you really like that’s not listed I’d love to read your recommendations in the comments below. I’ve heard really good things about Pumking by Southern Tier Brewing and Dogfish Head Brewery’s Punkin Ale, but I haven’t had a chance to try them yet.

That’s a rap for the Armchair Quarterback’s Guide To The NFL: Week 4. Enjoy your games this week and if you read anything you loved or hated in this week’s post then let me hear about it in the comments section.