Pumpkin Night!

I had a couple of interesting beer experiences this weekend. First, I went to the Winking Lizard in Coventry this past Friday to check out the new "glass of the month" special. This one was a real winner - a custom 1 liter winking lizard mug full of Spaten Oktoberfest for $9.25. A great deal if you ask me. Spaten's Oktoberfest pours a deep amber color, with notes of pleasant toasted malt and some bitterness in the finish. Spaten is one of only six German breweries authorized to sell beer at the Oktoberfest celebration in Munich each year. On a personal note, the spicy barbecue wings at the Winking Lizard are fantastic - I could eat them all night!

Being the first weekend of October, I decided it was time to start enjoying one of my favorite vegetables: Pumpkin! So this evening (Saturday) I picked up a bottle of Hoppin' Frog Double Pumpkin Ale and ingredients for pumpkin pie. The Double Pumpkin was a bit of a let down to be honest (for my full review see here). Perhaps my expectations were set too high after it won gold at Great American Beer Festival, but nothing about it really stood out for me. First impressions were not good - it poured with almost no head and looked flat (though it ended up being almost over-carbonated). The smell was better, featuring a good dose of cinnamon and the other typical pumpkin pie spices. The flavor was about average I would say - definitely some pumpkin and spice flavor, mixed with some generic sweet malt. In my opinion, however, a good pumpkin ale either needs to be in your face with delicious pumpkin pie flavor (ala Pumking) or achieve a good balance between spice and the more traditional beer elements - roasted malts and some subtle hop bitterness. This one really did neither - it was a little too sweet and unbalanced for my liking. I will admit by bias, however: I do not see how any pumpkin ale not named Southern Tier Pumking could ever win gold.

 Despite being a bit of a let down, I still enjoyed sipping on the Double Pumpkin over the course of the evening and it paired well with the pumpkin pie I baked. Come Thanksgiving time I'll write a similar post with my thoughts on how Pumking pairs with my dad's pumpkin pie. Happy October!