The Third Annual Pumpkin Beer Tasting

Although we are Cigar and Whiskey, we pride ourselves on trying a world of delicious things in the world of smoke and drink. So it was three years ago that we decided that we’d try some pumpkin beers and let everyone know what we thought. Last year we tried even MORE pumpkin beers, then promptly got too drunk and forgot to write down everything (this shall henceforth be referred to as “the lost year”). However, this year we decided we wouldn’t be doing this project justice if we didn’t taste ALL of the pumpkin beers we could find in the central Texas area!

We also decided to base this round on data more than remembering specific taste, because frankly its hard to keep great notes when you’re 40+ beers deep. So, we gave all of our tasters scorecards (there were eleven tasters total) and had them rate each beer on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being “not fit for human consumption” and 5 being “give me the rest of the bomber”. We then combined and averaged the scores to bring you our official ratings for this year!

We’ll include in the list below the name, brewery, and style of the beers in addition to the average rating. If you’ve got any questions or opinions on the beers themselves then sound off in the comments and we’ll do our best to try to remember them…(seriously, next year we’re going to include a better notes section because relying on memory for specific tasting notes is, shall we say, impossible).

Anyway, without further ado, here’s the list!

Name Brewery Type Score
Black’O’Lantern Wasatch Stout 4.27
20 Pounds of Pumpkin Samuel Adams Ale 3.82
Pumpkin Ale Whole Hog Ale 3.82
Pumpkin Ale Upslope Ale 3.82
Pumpkinator St. Arnold Imperial Stout 3.73
Pumpkick New Belgium Ale 3.45
Imperial Pumpkin Smash Crown Valley Stout 3.45
Krunkin Pumpkin Karbach Ale 3.27
Nightmare on 1st Street Off Label Imperial Ale 3.00
Leinenkugel Harvest Patch Shandy Leinenkugel Shandy 2.86
Harvest Pumpkin Ale Blue Moon Ale 2.82
Imperial Pumpkin Harpoon Imperial Stout 2.82
Pumpkinhead Shipyard Ale 2.64
Pumking Southern Tier Imperial Ale 2.64
Imperial Pumpkin Porter 26 Epic Imperial Porter 2.55
Pumpkin Massacre Infamous Porter 2.55
Pumpkin Seasonal Wasatch Ale 2.45
Punk’n Uinta Ale 2.45
Funkier Pumpkin Boulevard Brewing Company Spiced Sour Ale 2.45
Headless Gentleman Imperial Bourbon Porter Strangeland Brewery 2.45
Pumpkin Spice Latte Buffalo Bayou Ale 2.45
Imperial Pumpkin Porter 15 Epic Imperial Porter 2.36
Wick For Brains Nebraska Ale 2.32
Pumpkin Spice Latte Breckenridge Brewery Stout 2.27
Punkin Ale Dogfish Head Brown Ale 2.27
Sleepy Hollow Five Stones Ale 2.27
Pumpkin Patch Rogue Ale 2.27
Funk’N’Patch Uinta Ale 2.18
Punkel Lakewood Brewing Company Dunkel 2.09
Smashed Pumpkin Shipyard Ale 2.09
Pumpkin Ale Kennebunkport Ale 2.00
Pumpkin UFO Harpoon Unfiltered Ale 2.00
Shock Top Pumpkin Wheat Shock Top 2.00
Fall Hornin’ Anderson Valley Ale 1.73
La Parcela Jolly Pumpkins Sour Ale 1.55
Rumpkin Avery Brewing Ale Aged in Rum Barrels 1.45
Post Road Pumpkin Ale Brooklyn Ale 1.36
Hooligan North Peak Ale 1.27
Pump(KY)n Avery Brewing Porter Aged in Bourbon Barrels 1.18
Pumpkin Lambicus Timmermans Lambic 0.91
Pinchy Jeek Barl Anderson Valley Bourbon Barrel Pumpkin Ale 0.91
Warlock Imperial Stout Southern Tier 0.91
Pumpkin Latte Martin House Stout 0.73

We’d also like to give a special shout out to WhichCraft Beer Store in Austin Texas for helping us curate our selection this year and offering us a few hard to find selections they were aging. Thanks guys!