So I am a bit behind in my write up on pumpkin ales. I look forward to the pumpkin ales coming out each Fall and try my best to enjoy the offerings from multiple breweries before it is all done. Last year, the clear winner in my book was Dogfish Head Brewery Punkin' Ale. Punkin' Ale is a great pumpkin ale with the perfect amount of spice to pumpkin ratio and a great finish. I find that a lot of pumpkin ales rely too much on the spices that are supposed to complement the pumpkin to the point that they overpower the pumpkin flavor all together, but not the Punkin' Ale.
This Fall, I tried a handful of pumpkin ales. Dogfish Head still remains at the top of my list, but I wanted to branch out and see if there were any contenders. The first one I tried was from one of my favorite breweries, Terrapin Beer Co. I am a Bulldawg, so this Athens brewery tugs at my heartstrings, but unfortunately I found their Pumpkinfest to be much too floral. Perhaps is was also the malt that didn't agree with me, but it was just not my favorite. I still love their their Rye Pale Ale, Hopsecutioner IPA, and Wake n' Bake which includes Jittery Joe's coffee (a local Athens coffee shop brew). I will definitely revisit Terrapin in a later post. It is a great brewery (
terrapinbeer.com).
The pumpkin ale that truly knocked my socks off this year was Foothills Brewery's Cottonwood Pumpkin Ale. Cottonwood has done a great job of balancing real pumpkin flavor with the complementary spices of Fall. This ale is very smooth and is enjoyable straight from the bottle or in a frosty mug. Pumpkin brews may be hard to find at this point in the season, but if you can still find a six pack of Cottonwood's Pumpkin Ale I highly recommend picking one up. Enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment