autumn

I know that this is post everyone has been waiting for! Let’s get right to it!

This year, we had all the original tasters together again! Yay! No wind storms kept people from Bend, no family birthday parties kept people away, no gut issues kept people from imbibing! It was darn near perfect to have our best friends all in one place.

As with 2017, 2016, and 2015, we used a 5 point scale (allowing for half points, thus rendering it into an effective 10 point scale) using the following rubric:

5 points:  I would drink more of this RIGHT NOW, and never want to drink anything else.
4 points:  I would totally drink this again and again.
3 points:  I would drink this if someone offered it to me, but probably wouldn’t buy it.
2 points:  Would drink if the only choices were this and Bud.
1 point:  Nope. Not ever again.

Again, we discussed if we rate on a pumpkin-ness scale, and again, we decided to leave it up to the taster.

This year we had 10 beers and threw 2 ciders in for the heck of it. We’re wild like that.

Here we go… CHEERS!

1st Place- The Great Pumpkin by Elysian Brewing: 4.5 points. This is a classic pumpkin beer that has been in our top 4 (earning 1st place in 2015, even!) every single year we do this. As always, Elysian was a stand-out in the pumpkin beer universe. This is just a good, smooth pumpkin beer. Spiced but not too much, pumpkin but not too much.

2nd Place- Voodoo Ranger Atomic Pumpkin by New Belgium: 4.0 points. This one was spicy! I didn’t actually really like it, but everyone else did and the score reflects this. I think some people actually gave it a 5. This beer is brewed with habanero and other chilies and spices. It isn’t kick you in the face spicy, but it does leave a hot feeling down the back of your throat. It’s different that the usual pumpkin pie spice beer and that’s fun.

3rd Place- Night Owl by Elysian: 4 points, then 3.5 points, so an average of 3.75 points. This was the beer we used to test our rating system and our tasting apparatus – we tatsed it at the beginning of the night and rated it at a 4, then again and it scored a 3.5.  I still like this one. It’s a good pumpkin pie, good spiced taste.  Any way you look at it, this beer placed 3rd.

4th Place- Punkuccino by Elysian Brewing: 3.3888 points. This is a darker beer with a good hint of Stumptown coffee to it. You can taste the roast, but it didn’t taste burned and bitter. Elysian does it again with a good batch of Punkuccino.

5th Place (tie)- Dark Knife by Elysian: 2.9375 Points. At 4.3% ABV, this is a smooth drinking pumpkin beer. It was unique to our test as a German Schwarzbier, and I liked it. Elysian does it again for 2018, rounding it out with four of our top 5 beers!

5th Place (tie)- Pumpkin Spice by Portland Cider Company: 2.9375. This was the good cider of the year. It tasted like a good, crisp, apple cider, with just a hint of all the pumpkin spices. It wasn’t too sweet, and our team seemed to really appreciate that about it. While I wouldn’t really say it was on the same level of the pumpkin beers, according to our scale, we would all drink this with no problem.

6th Place (tie)- Imperial Pumpkin Porter by Epic Brewing: 2.8125. I think I sort of liked this one, but it didn’t knock our socks off. I don’t remember much about it, which tells me it wasn’t amazing and wasn’t gross. So that’s good I guess.

6th Place (tie)- Jamaica Me Pumpkin by 10 Barrel: 2.8125. Again, I was disappointed by how difficult this beer was to open/ the end result of all our hard work opening the ridiculous bottle.  Too syrupy sweet and weird. I don’t like rum in my pumpkin beer, thank you very much.

7th Place- Imperial Pumpkin Porter by Alaskan Brewing: 2.6875. This one tasted burnt to me. I still say that I don’t much like pumpkin porters, and I think this is why. You know when you leave the candle burning in your jack-0-lantern and it starts to burn the pumpkin and it has that really distinct smell? That’s what this tasted like to me, but with the spices added to it.

8th Place- Great Gourds of Fire by Hopworks Urban Brewery: 2.5. This was another beer that added spice, as in spicy spice, and it wasn’t as good as Atomic Pumpkin. Last year this got 2nd place and this is what I wrote, “It was also our first, so perhaps that’s why it scores so well.  We’ll never know.” Maybe we do know now.

9th Place- Big Black Jack by Oakshire: 2.444444.  Oh, Oakshire, how much do I want to say about you? Last year this beer got 10th place, in 2016 it got 8th, in 2015 it got 4th. What has changed so much since 2015? Well, it might have something to do with Alesong Brewing opening in 2015. Who knows.

10th Place- Hollow Jack by Two Towns Cider: 1.125. Well, this cider didn’t hit the mark at all. Way too syrupy sweet. While it had more of a pumpkin flavor than our other cider, it was hard to drink.

That’s it!  Thanks for reading along again this year. I love this tradition with our friends, and I love taking the time the next day to write up all our thoughts. I didn’t realize, though, that I should start keeping tasting notes and quotes as we go to make this job a bit easier the next day. I’m getting too old to rely on my beer soaked memory.  See ya next year! Happy pumpkining!

The Twelve Pumpkin Beers of 2017. 

This was another fun Pumpkin Beer Fest, for sure.  This year (like the first two years: 2016 and 2015), was a night of fun, friends, snacks, laughter, and of course, beer.  Everyone brought a couple (or several) bottles for everyone to try out.  Like last year, some of our friends couldn’t make it, and we missed them, but the show must go on.  Also, I was excited to have my college roommate with us this year!

We used our traditional scoring rubric.

5 points:  I would drink more of this RIGHT NOW, and never want to drink anything else.
4 points:  I would totally drink this again and again.
3 points:  I would drink this if someone offered it to me, but probably wouldn’t buy it.
2 points:  Would drink if the only choices were this and Bud.
1 point:  Nope. Not ever again.

There are always discussions about how to rate a beer when it’s good, but not too pumpkin-y.  We usually leave that up to the rater to decide, personally.  Without further ado…. here are our results.  Cheers!

1st Place:  Night Owl, Elysian Brewing Company 4.07.  Once again, Elysian seems to have the right formula for a delicious pumpkin beer.  This one had just the right blend of pumpkin spice.  It wasn’t syrupy or too spicy or bitter.  Smooth, perfectly spiced, and wonderful.

2nd Place (tie): Great Gourds of Fire, Hopworks Urban Brewing 3.93. This one had a bit of a kick at the end.  It is brewed with the typical pumpkin spices, but also with some actual spice.  I didn’t really like that about this one, but the pumpkin spice was lovely, and it was a good, solid beer.  It was also our first, so perhaps that’s why it scores so well.  We’ll never know.

2nd Place (tie): Evan’s friend Evyn’s homebrew 3.93. This was perfectly smooth and easy to drink.  It had some good pumpkinness in it and it was delicious.  Good pumpkin beer, Evyn.

3rd Place: Pumpkin Pedaler, Stormbreaker Brewing 3.86.  I don’t remember this one.  I didn’t even remember to put this on the blog originally.  I’ve edited the post to add it, but I can’t say anything about it.  But it scored pretty well, so it must be good!

4th Place: The Great Pumpkin, Elysian Brewing Company 3.79. This was 2015’s winner, and still one of my favorites.  This one tastes like pumpkin pie, but in a really good way.  I still love this one.

5th Place: Pumpkin Bier, pFriem 3.71.  This was last year’s winner and it was delicious this year, too.  I think I scored it lower because I didn’t get the pumpkin spice out of this one like I wanted to.  It was a delicious, easy to drink beer, but, to me, it just tasted like a delicious beer.  I wanted more pumpkin.  Looking back at last year, I wrote that it had a gingery finish.  I didn’t get that this year.

6th Place: Imperial Pumpkin Porter, Epic Brewing 3.79. I don’t really like porters, or really pumpkin in porters.  I think I like my pumpkin in lighter beers so the spices dance around, instead of just sitting there in the darkness.  This was my favorite of the dark pumpkin beers, though.

7th Place: Pumpkin Smash, Cascade 3.14. Now, I love me a good sour and I love me a good pumpkin beer.  But, for some reason, these just didn’t add up for me.  I mean, when I was drinking it, I understood that it was good.  I understood that it was delicious. I understood that it was clever and fun.  But, I just couldn’t picture myself drinking much more than the taster.  Maybe because I think of sours in the summer, at the pool, and I think of pumpkin beers in autumn, warm and cozy.  Call me crazy.

8th Place: Pumpkin Patch Ale, Rogue 3.07.  I actually really liked this one.  It was good.  Jesse thought it tasted too much like actual pumpkins – he compared it to pumpkins rotting in a field.  I didn’t really taste that, but you know, to each their own.

9th Place: Jamaican Me Pumpkin, 10Barrel 2.29.  Besides having a really dumb name and being ridiculously hard to open, this beer just wasn’t much good.  It was syrupy and too sweet.

10th Place: Big Black Jack, Oakshire 2.5. This porter just tasted burned.  I don’t know if it’s the chocolate porter part of it, but it didn’t sit well.

11th Place: Pinchy Jeek Barl, Anderson Valley 1.43.  This one was bad.  It is aged in bourbon barrels and it just tasted like gross bourbon.  Pumpkin beer or bourbon- pick one, ya know?

That’s all!  There you have it!  Our scientific, fool-proof list of which pumpkin beers to drink this year.

Also, I think it’s interesting that we were all in a more middle of the road mood this year.  We usually have a much larger spread of ratings.  It would be interesting to look back and see what was going on in the world when we did these ratings.  Last year, everything was all about the campaign and so divided and everyone had strong opinions on everything.  The first year (when we were all more innocent – in many ways), there were five beers that scored over 4 points – we were more hopeful and happy and generous.  This year we’re just jaded and not willing to commit to things being good OR bad.  Or something.  I’m obviously not a sociologist or a beer expert, so don’t take my word for any of this.