Pumpkin Party

While lugging myself out of bed at 6:40 am this morning to help aid my mother with my niece and nephew, I did the usual routine for the summer in New England. I threw on a pair of shorts, a tattered undershirt, a polo shirt, and a hat to hide my bed head. My mom was already waiting for me in the driveway as I scampered around my house looking for my flip flops and wallet. After a few minutes scouring the house I finally said "fuck it" and threw on my smelly boat shoes. Once I stepped outside my front door I was hit by a chill from a stiff cool breeze, and noticed there were several dead leaves lying all over the lawn.

Over the past few weeks I had noticed the sun was starting to set around 7 and I wasn't sweating balls every moment of the day. Still though, it felt like the fall was a long ways away even though I saw my brother and sister in law prepping for their new semester of teaching, and various awful Old Navy back to school commercials began to over populate the television screen. Just last night I was celebrating my niece's 3rd birthday at my brother's house, and my brother's niece was talking about how nervous she was to start middle school tomorrow.

Still it wasn't really till this morning that it hit me, summer is over. Sure, the summer season technically runs through to September 21st, but when I was a kid, I could give a fuck about technicality. As soon as I stepped onto those shitty yellow buses, summer was officially over. Obviously it's different now as an "adult" but, I still abide by those same rules. When school is in session, it's not summer. It's that simple.

That three paragraph ramble was my introduction to telling you that I'm excited that it's pumpkin season. I had been trying to force pumpkin season upon myself by drinking loads of pumpkin beer, and looking for other pumpkin related products, but no matter what beer I had, or what I found it still didn't feel right. Today is the first day that I truly feel it upon us, and it is a grand time to have upon us.

Maybe it will feel less Fall-like when I head back to Los Angeles for the foreseeable future on September 11 (side note: yes, I'm flying across the country on September 11th). Even though September is one of the hotter months in LA, I plan on being so immersed into the pumpkin season that there will be no turning back.

This year I plan on having a more calculated approach to my pumpkin madness. The last two years I have tried a fair amount of different pumpkin beers during the season and none of them have managed to stack up against Shipyard's Pumpkinhead. Pumpkinhead is a simple, elegant beer, that is fulfilling both as a beer, and as a pumpkin. It's got a light head, but it pulls smoothly, and leaves you feeling like you just ate a piece of pumpkin pie hot out of the oven.

Of course this is what all pumpkin beers are trying to accomplish for the most part. They all pretty much want to give you the illusion that you were just sucking down pumpkin pie in a beer form, but Pumpkinhead still stands alone in my eyes as the best pumpkin influence beer. Off the top of my head I have tried, Buffalo Bills' pumpkin beer, and had a lot last year to try and fill the pumpkin shaped void in my heart that Pumpkinhead left when they ran out if it at all local retailers in Los Angeles. It was for all intensive purposes, a solid beer, but it just wasn't the same. It didn't pull as smoothly. It didn't have the right mix of nutmeg, and cinnamon undertones that pumpkinhead has.

Dogfish Head makes my favorite beer in the world and I adore all of their products for the most part, but their attempt at a pumpkin beer called "Punkin Ale," fell far short of Pumpkinhead. It was a decent beer for what it was worth, and if Pumpkinhead didn't exist maybe I would go for it, but it's more expensive, only comes in 4 packs, and doesn't have the same drink-ability as Pumpkinhead.

Last summer I tried Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale, the Blue Moon attempt at a pumpkin beer, and I have to say this is the one that disappointed me the most. I won't go out of my way for a regular Blue Moon any day, but it is a pretty damn enjoyable beer when paired with an orange slice. So I had decent expectations for Harvest Moon, but I was very disappointed and I recommend that you stay away from this beer and try something else.

Shipyard has another pumpkin beer, called "Smashed Pumpkin." This beer is a more full bodied specialty brew so it doesn't have the same drink-ability as Pumpkinhead. It's part of the Pugsly Series by Shipyard, which is terrific if you aren't familiar with it. It's a 9 percent alcohol beer so it packs a decent punch for a pumpkin beer which is nice. The beer itself is a darker and thicker beer than Pumpkinhead, and may stand as a better beer, but you aren't drinking Pumpkinhead for the beer, you're drinking it for the pumpkin.

UFO Pumpkin, one of Harpoon's latest Pumpkin infused alcoholic beverages (they have two), is the pumpkin ale that comes closest to dethroning Pumpkinhead. It's UFO, so it's Harpoon's "Unfiltered Offering," which makes it a darker beer. You actually can't even see through the beer it's so cloudy. Still it goes down smooth, and has a great subtle Pumpkin flavor. Still it just doesn't have that lasting appeal that Pumpkinhead has. That mixture of the spices, and ingredients in are simply perfectly balanced. Harpoon also has a Pumpkin Cider, which I've heard is lovely, but I haven't had the privilege of enjoying yet.

You see that's just it. Right now Shipyard Pumpkinhead reigns supreme for me, but I searched "pumpkin beers" on google and over 340 different beers popped up. And according to Beer Advocate, Pumpkinhead doesn't even make the top 50. This boggles my mind. Of course a few of the beers I have listed made that top 50, so I may not agree with them anyway. Either way the fact that there are over 340 different types of pumpkin beer listed boggles my mind.

My goal is to expand my pallet and intake as much different pumpkin beer as possible. By the end of the season I plan to try at least 25 more types this season to see where Pumpkinhead stands on the list of great pumpkin beers. My guess is that it will still stand tall as the dominant brew, but I'm very excited to drink lots of beer to find out.

The Test:

In subsequent posts I will list off different pumpkin beers and I will always square them up against a Shipyard Pumpkin meaning that I have to drink them both at the same time. That way there is no lingering time between the two beers so I can distinguish a clear favorite at the time. This also means that I will have to drink a full beer of both as well.

For example this here is what I mean.

I will pour them both into a glass and drink a sip from each, one at a time until I am about half way. Once I get half way through the beer, I then drink each by themselves to the finish. This way I can get singular sips out of them, and then get what the beer is like if I were just to be drinking that.

Once I've made my decision on what is the best, I will give you my honest opinion and tell you all about my experience. I just bought a Sam Adams Fat Jack, and plan on having that very soon. So if you like pumpkin, and like beer then you should keep checking back for future posts on this subject.

May the best brew win.