Pumpkin Beer That Doesn’t Suck: Dogfish Head Punkin Ale
Published by Joel October 27th, 2006 in Beer. Share This
One of the first “weird” beers many deign to try is a pumpkin ale, a relatively common seasonal variety that should be firmly in stores these shortened days. The problem with pumpkin ale is that most of the ones I’ve tried have been pretty horrid, either blandly vegetative or not tasting of pumpkin at all, but pumpkin pie spices. (Pie spices in a pumpkin beer aren’t bad, per se, but you wouldn’t want to eat a pie tasting only of spices, either.)
Predictably, Dogfish Head’s “Punkin Ale” avoids the leaf-litter pits into which most other pumpkin beers plummet, offering a fully round ale with just the right balance of pumpkin, spice, and malt flavors—and just a touch of brown sugar. If you’re in New England you should track it down. I wouldn’t want to drink it all year long, but it’s a nice fall alternative to my standard, go-to beers.
(Actually, that would be a great beer name: “10 Beer; 20 GOTO 10.” Okay, maybe not great.)
I’ve heard of other pumpkin beers out there that don’t suck turbid, trubby butthole: Do they exist? And just as importantly, what pumpkin beers out there are confirmed losers?
Did your headline just say “Punkin” ale? Wordplay…
Wow i’m good. I read the box, it *is* in fact Punkin Ale.
You guys…
…you guys…
Blue Moon has a Pumpkin Ale out now. It’s good, but it tastes nothing like pumpkin or pumpkin spices.
I don’t know about this, adding fruit to beer has never been a really good thing to me. They all taste like someone took a miller or bud, added some chemical flavoring and decided that was it. The beer flavor is always overshadowed by the fruit and the fruit never actually tastes like it’s supposed to so you’re left with a product that doesn’t taste like either of the things it claims to be.
The Shipyard Pumpkinhead is pretty good too. The local Rock Bottom just brewed a pumpkin ale that I’m a fan of as well. Pumpkin is one of the few produce flavors that I think can really compliment beer… or maybe I just really like pumpkin.
Buffalo Bills Pumkin Ale is pretty solid, it has a slight pumpkin taste but not so much that you couldnt drink a few of them. http://www.buffalobillsbrewery.com/
Brooklyn Brewery makes a good one called Post Road Pumpkin Ale and it’s pretty easy to find (granted, I live in Brooklyn, but whatever). It does have a bit of the pumpkin pie spice syndrome alluded to, but I don’t find it objectionable.
I second “Pumpkinhead” from Shipyard. It has a touch more nutmeg than might be optimal, but is very well done overall.
racohen415: I agree to a point unless it comes to Lambics. I can’t drink Lambics often but when I do, it’s always a treat.
SRD: Brooklyn Brewery’s Brooklyn Lager is probably my favorite beer… I think it has something to do with not being able to get the stuff except on special occasions. Last Christmas my girlfriend had a friend who she knew was flying to NY for the holidays smuggle some back to me. They need to expand distribution, I’d buy it regularly.
Not sure of distribution reach - I’ll put a word in for New Holland Brewery “Ichabod Pumpkin Ale” - it’s a common sight in the West Michigan area.
http://www.newhollandbrew.com/brews/seasonals.html
Jeremy: From what I know lambics don’t traditionally have fruit in them, the fruity flavor is provided by the wild yeasts that ferment the beer and give it that tart fruity flavor. I haven’t had a lambic that used fruit but I imagine if any beer were suited for frutifying it would be a lambic.
racohen415: I was referring to a “fruit lambic.” Although I didn’t know it at the time. My girlfriend goes zany over Framboise Lambics.
Via Wikipedia:
Lambic with the addition of sour cherry (kriek), raspberry (framboise), peach (pêche), blackcurrant (cassis), grape (druif), or strawberry (aardbei), as either whole fruit or syrup. Other, rarer fruit lambic flavorings include apple, banana, pineapple, apricot, plum, and lemon. Fruit lambics are usually bottled with secondary fermentation.
It’s Punkin’ Ale because Dogfish Head is based in Sussex County Delaware, home of and birthplace of World Champion Punkin’ Chunkin’ (the sport). The beer was developed as part of the annual fall ritual of Chunkin’ madness that overtakes us each year at this time.
I find Smuttynose’s pumpkin ale to be on par with Dogfish Head’s (and slightly easier to find most of the time). I used a bottle of it to cook beef stew the other night, too, and that was an extremely successful experiment.
i’ve tried all of the other pumpkin ales before … I just tried the dogfish punkin …WOW. by far the best pick of the litter. i highly recommend to anyone who has yet to try it!
I’d just like to say I enjoy the Dogfish Head Punkin. I first had it at Pumpkin Fest in Cooperstown, NY a few weeks back but was happy to find it was from Delaware.
just picked up a sixtel of the Dogfish Punkin my favorite of the pumkin beers by far, it’s pricey but worth it by the keg