Revenge Of The Pumpkin Beer

• Julia Thiel
• Way too many pumpkin beers

After last year’s pumpkin beer tastings, which quickly got out of hand and led to me trying more pumpkin beers than I’d ever wanted to, I was planning to skip the whole thing this year. Except I realized I had a bottle of Southern Tier’s Pumking and a Dogfish Head Punkin Ale in the basement that I’d never gotten around to drinking the year before (some people would refer to that as “cellaring,” but I call it “making room in the fridge”). I did want to taste those two next to this year’s offerings. And I figured it couldn’t hurt to throw in a couple favorites from last year for comparison. I’m still not sure how I ended up tasting 14 different beers.

Recommended:

Southern Tier Pumking (fresh and year-old versions): This year’s Pumking is very sweet and spiced, with a slightly bitter nutmeg finish. The older one is even more syrupy, almost candied, with no bitterness—a development I wouldn’t have thought I’d like, but it works, mellowing and melding all the flavors.

Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin: Rich nutmeg, not too sweet, not bad but unremarkable. I will say that it’s much better than the brewery’s Pumpkinhead Ale, which I tried and hated last year (relabeled for Trader Joe’s as Kennebunkport Pumpkin Ale).