I'm holding out until October before I start drinking fall beers. My fear is that they'll all be gone and replaced by winter warmers by that point. :/
Anyone try the Sam Adams Bonfire Blonde? I reeeeeeeally like their Hoppy Red, not sure about this one though.
I get that breweries and distributors have to push out pumpkin beers in late july/early august because that's the way the market is -- and retailers have purchase them or just miss out on them altogether -- but who started this trend? It's absurd. My boss at the brewery I work at said they will brew their pumpkin beer 'soon' but it also sits for a few weeks before it's tapped. They don't want it until the last half of October and through November. That, to me, is prime pumpkin/marzen/fall beer time.
Absolutely. There just isn't anything appealing to me about drinking a pumpkin or fall spiced beer when it's still 80 degrees out. I'm going to milk these fruity, citrus summer IPA's until it's in the 50's, dammit.
We don't have seasons around here, so I drink anything any time, but yeah right now is early for pumpkin in the spiritual sense
I can see releasing Marzen's/Oktoberfest's in late August since that's a September holiday but I agree on the pumpkins coming out too early. The shop I go to refused to put any of the pumpkin beers they got out on the shelves until September hit even though they had them in stock for a few weeks.
But then the retailer is just putting out a month old beer at that point, which I think is almost as bad. I don't know, the entire pumpkin beer scene is a fucked up mess IMO.
I picked up a bomber of good gourd yesterday, never had it before. Not really into pumpkin beers, but usually pick up pumpking once a year.
Some of the best pumpkin beers I have had Kane - Fall Saints Boulevard - Funky Pumpkin Elysian - Punkuccino Elysian - Dark O The Moon Almanac - Pumpkin Sour Almanac - Heirloom Pumpkin Barleywine The Bruery - Ignis Fatuus Uinta - Punk'n
I did almost buy Boulevard's Funkier Pumpkin or whatever it's called which is a brett pumpkin beer with some age on it. Then I put it down and walked away. Couldn't pull the trigger on it.
as mentioned in my post above this, I really liked that Boulevard one. Pumpkin as a flavor works really well in sours
Just snagged tix for this and my day session sold out in 20 minutes. The Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beer (FoBAB) - Events - Universe
I've never seen those two Elysian's but around my parts has been selling Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale, which I've bought 3 6-packs of already in the past month. It's very good.
I don't think I've had that one, I recall last year they had the trio of the two I listed and The Great Pumpkin in bomber size, maybe the 6-pack is a 4th style for them, ha
I picked up some local Cleveland pumpkin beers the other night (Market Garden Brewery Pumpkin Spice Ale). Haven't tried them yet but excited to throw some of them back tonight.
If any of you are fans of chai tea, I highly recommend Avery's Chai High, really impressively bold flavors