{"id":298,"date":"2015-09-25T18:50:56","date_gmt":"2015-09-25T22:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/syntap.com\/blog\/?p=298"},"modified":"2015-09-25T18:53:01","modified_gmt":"2015-09-25T22:53:01","slug":"pumpkin-ale-reviews-for-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/syntap.com\/blog\/?p=298","title":{"rendered":"Pumpkin Ale Reviews for 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2015<\/p>\n

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It is Fall again, and I have selected seven\u00a0pumpkin ales for this year’s showdown. Either I started the season too early, or I am really biting into the varieties available as I bought up all everything I haven’t reviewed yet and only found seven. Why do I do this? \u00a0So you won’t end up with\u00a0a full pack of what might be a dreaded PINO, the Pumpkin In Name Only!<\/p>\n

As with last year I’ll re-review a past winner, and because the varieties were fewer I’ll also review a past so-so bottle to see if anything changed.\u00a0 Most are good on their own,\u00a0the ranking is how good of a pumpkin ale they are. \u00a0“Great” to me means grandma’s pumpkin pie was thrown into a blender and converted magically into a cold bottled product.<\/p>\n

Here they are,\u00a0ranked least favorite to favorite. \u00a0More will be added as the Fall progresses. \u00a0At the bottom of the review is a list of all 38 vari<\/span>eties reviewed to date, in order of preference.<\/p>\n

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Samuel Adams Pumpkin Batch<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"samadamsbatch\"
\nI had high hopes for this one because their other pumpkin offering Harvest Pumpkin was good, but they must have brewed this from pumpkin rind discards. \u00a0I got it all down only because I paid for it, maybe there was something wrong with what ended up in the sample bottle but it was hard to finish.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Southern Tier Imperial Pumpking Ale<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"southerntier\"Pumpking Ale tastes kind of like something with a \u201cBlack Forest\u201d label, something in the aroma says \u201cpumpkin\u201d but the taste does not. \u00a0This is one that comes in big bottles in Costco.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"weyerbacher\"Some spice aroma but too bitter for my taste.<\/p>\n

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New Holland Ichabod Ale<\/strong>
\n\"ichabodpumpkin\"At first I thought this was a slim notch above a PINO, but if you leave it in the glass a little while the spices come out a little bit. \u00a0Still not as spicy as others.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ace Pumpkin Cider<\/strong>
\n\"ace\"Tasty, but if you poured this out of an apple cider-branded bottle you probably wouldn\u2019t know the difference. \u00a0A little pumpkin flavoring is there, and it is a bit tart. \u00a0Overall it is a good drink but it doesn\u2019t stand out as a pumpkin one.<\/p>\n

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Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale<\/strong>
\n\"BlueMoon-HarvestPumpkinAle\"This year I decided to introduce a re-trial of a past non-winner. \u00a0This is the brand that in draft form at a baseball park introduced me to pumpkin ales. \u00a0The bottled variety didn\u2019t impress me in a past review, but this year it was a little bit better.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale<\/strong>
\n\"shipyard-pumpkinhead-bottle\"I like to level-set my new year with a past winner, this one was Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale. A little slanted to caramel-ly this year, very good but not the top marks\u00a0of 2013.<\/p>\n

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Leinenliugels Harvest Patch Shandy<\/strong>
\n\"shandy\"Spicy and tasty.<\/p>\n

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Mckenzie\u2019s Pumpkin Jack Hard Cider<\/strong>
\n\"mckenzies\"One of the ciders we\u2019re trying this year. \u00a0Exceptional and is looking to be the winner of 2015. \u00a0If you are already familiar with apple-based ciders, this is kind of like a cider with a tablespoon of nutmeg mixed in but in a good way.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Full 2013-2015 Pumpkin Ales Review Rankings, 36 Varieties Ordered by Bill’s Preference<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mckenzie\u2019s Pumpkin Jack Hard Cider<\/p>\n

Cortland Beer Company Pumpkin Ale<\/p>\n

Harpoon Unfiltered Pumpkin Ale<\/p>\n

Shipyard Pumpkinhead<\/p>\n

Alewerks Pumpkin Ale<\/p>\n

Saint Louis Brewery Schlafly Pumpkin Ale<\/p>\n

Southampton Publick House Pumpkin Ale<\/p>\n

Fordham Spiced Harvest Ale<\/p>\n

RJ Rockers Gruntled Pumpkin Ale<\/p>\n

Leinenliugels Harvest Patch Shandy<\/p>\n

Evolution Craft Jacques All Lantern<\/p>\n

Ichabod Crandall<\/p>\n

Shock Top Pumpkin Wheat<\/p>\n

Sam Adams Harvest Pumpkin<\/p>\n

Saranac Pumpkin Ale<\/p>\n

Blue Moon Harvest Moon Pumpkin<\/p>\n

Ithaca Beer Company Country Pumpkin<\/p>\n

Traveler Beer Company Jacko Traveler Seasonal Shandy<\/p>\n

Wolaver\u2019s Pumpkin Ale<\/p>\n

Starr Hill Boxcar Pumpkin Porter<\/p>\n

New Holland Ichabod Ale<\/p>\n

Red Hook Pumpkin Porter<\/p>\n

Blue Point Pumpkin Ale<\/p>\n

Ace Pumpkin Cider<\/p>\n

Long Trail Pumpkin Ale<\/p>\n

Devil\u2019s Backbone Brewing Company Pumpkin Hunter<\/p>\n

Flying Dog Brewery Imperial Pumpkin Ale<\/p>\n

Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale<\/p>\n

Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale<\/p>\n

New Belgium Pumpkick<\/p>\n

Anderson Valley Fall Hornin\u2019 Pumpkin Ale<\/p>\n

Buffalo Bill\u2019s Brewery America\u2019s Original Pumpkin Ale<\/p>\n

Wood Chuck Hard Cider Pumpkin<\/p>\n

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale<\/p>\n

Southern Tier Imperial Pumpking Ale<\/p>\n

Post Road Pumpkin Ale<\/p>\n

Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin<\/p>\n

Samuel Adams Pumpkin Batch<\/p>\n

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  It is Fall again, and I have selected seven\u00a0pumpkin ales for this year’s showdown. Either I started the season too early, or I am really biting into the varieties available as I bought up all everything I haven’t reviewed … Read more »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/syntap.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/syntap.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/syntap.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/syntap.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/syntap.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/syntap.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313,"href":"https:\/\/syntap.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions\/313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/syntap.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/syntap.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/syntap.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}