The Great Pumpkin Beer Roundup

The rituals of fall...  If you have small children, you've probably carted them off to a farm, propped them alongside over-sized gourds, and snapped pictures until they screamed in discomfort. Or maybe you just chilled out with a nice fall seasonal beer.  I've done both—the latter is more relaxing.

If you're going to drink beer in the fall, you must have at least one pumpkin beer.  Don't know which to try? Well, you've come to the right place! Last year, I had fun pitting Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale against Buffalo Bill's America's Original Pumpkin Ale in a pumpkin beer Deathmatch.  This year I'm upping the ante and have assembled a lineup of nine pumpkin beers! I hope to taste each of these before Halloween:

• Dark 'O The Moon Pumpkin Stout, Elysian Brewing Co, Seattle, WA
• The Great Pumpkin Ale, Elysian Brewing Co., Seattle, WA 
• Harvest Pumpkin Ale, Blue Moon Brewing Co., Golden, CO
• Punk'n Harvest Pumpkin Ale, Uinta Brewing Co., Salt Lake City, UT
• Pumpkin Ale, Smuttynose Brewing Co., Portsmouth, NH
• Pumpkineater, Howe Sound Inn & Brewing Co., Squamish, BC, Canada
• Pumpkin Lager, Lakefront Brewery, Milwaukee, WI
• Samuel Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale, The Boston Beer Co, Boston, MA
• Schlafly Pumpkin Ale, The Saint Louis Brewery, St. Louis, MO

If this still isn't enough pumpkin for you, please consider New Belgium's Kick. Part of their Lips of Faith series, it was brewed in collaboration with Elysian. It's a sour ale made with pumpkins and cranberries. I tasted it in August and really liked it!

After I'm done with these nine beers, I expect I will be begging for a winter seasonal... 

Follow this blog on Twitter or Facebook