What Beer Are You Drinking? Summer '13

[tanstaafl2]

Picked up a couple of the Southern Tier Warlock Pumpkin Imperial Stout (As well as restocking on the Miles Davis Bitches Brew that just hit the shelves again. The Brew is mighty tasty!).

Plan to open up one of the Warlocks with some friends tonight along with a few other pumpkin offerings for a mini pumpkin beer fest.

[unclebunk]

Thoroughly enjoyed a few bottles of Sierra Nevada Flipside Red IPA last night. The most pleasing aspect of this beer is that the hops are so aromatic, followed by a nice crisp but not overly cloying hop bite. Solid malty backbone too. I'll be buying more!

[AaronWF]

Having some GL Nosferatu on draft with lunch. It's good. Definitely leaning more hoppy than malty sweet, and not as sweet as last year, which I appreciate. The roasted malt is part of the point with this style, and I don't put up with it from many breweries, but GL brings such a mineral-y malt character to the table that I can enjoy it. The pronounced hops are what seal the deal for me.

[tanstaafl2]

I think i have pumpkin beer dripping out of my ears after last night!

Managed to get through these 12 last night with several friends. In addition to trying some current pumpkin ales we were trying to finish off a few bottles that had been sitting for about a year, in some cases intentionally and in some cases not so much.

Shipyard Pugsley Series Smashed Pumpkin 2012 - Had gotten a bit tart. Not bad but not great.

Timmermans Pumpkin Lambic 2012 - Not much pumpkin left but not a bad lambic by itself.

Chatoe Rogue 2012 - Apparently it had gone bad. Lots of moist cardboard. Most of it went down the drain.

Alltech Kentucky Pumpkin Barrel Ale 2013 - Rather bland and unremarkable. I didn't have high expectations but it managed to still fail to live up to them.

Uinta Oak Jacked Pumpkin 2012 - Again not much pumpkin but a pretty tasty beer with time perhaps helping the influence of the barrel to really shine.

Cigar City Good Gourd 2013 - Not available locally which was unfortunate as it was quite good. Probably the winner of the evening. Makes me wish I could try the one off rum white oak aged version.

Heavy Seas Great'er Pumpkin Barrel Aged 2012 & 2013 - Not much pumpkin left in the 2012 as expected but a pretty good beer. The 2013 has a bit more pumpkin spice and also plenty of vanilla influence that made it quite good. Probably the second place finisher.

Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale 2013 - Another import not available locally but this one was a bit of a disappointment. Rather bitter on the finish and not enough pumpkin or sweetness to balance it out. Didn't seem to match with past reviews.

Southern Tier Pumpking 2012 & 2013 - The 2012 had pretty much lost all the pumpkin spice that made it one of my favorites last year and tasted more like drinking cornbread! Not necessarily bad but not what I we had expected. Even more surprising is that the 2013 tasted almost exactly the same. Not sure what to make of that. Maybe we had a bad bottle.

Southern Tier Warlock Pumpkin Stout 2013 - Moderate pumpkin nose and taste doing battle with the roasted malts. Pretty good but not a must have.

[Yeti]

I didn't take detailed notes, but last weekend my friend and I drank a ton of pumpkin beer that was sent back from Bardstown at the KBF. Judging from my Untappd page we had 9:

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale 7% - 3/5

Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale 5.6% - 2.5/5

Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale 4.6% - 4/5

Schalfly Pumpkin Ale 8% - 4/5

New Belgium Pumpick 6% - 3/5

O'Fallon Pumpkin Beer 5.5% - 4/5

Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin 9% - 2.5/5 - Should have been lower than that. It was really pretty bad.

Sam Adams Fat Jack Double Pumpkin 8.5% - 3.5/5

Epic Fermentation Without Representation 7.8% - 4/5

My buddy and I agreed to democratize our ratings which kind of homogenized the results a bit, but neither of us give out any 1 or 2 star ratings really. The Smashed Pumpkin was kinda hard to drink, and was probably a 1.5 in my mind. Don't know how I rated it that highly. It was a huge disappointment because the regular Shipwreck pumpkin was a damn good session beer for the season. Pumpkin beer is a curiosity, once-a-year kind of thing, but if I were inclined to have any of these while watching the games on Saturday, this would be the one. The O'Fallon was the surprise of the night to me. It was creamy and tasted the most like fresh pumpkin pie. The Epic was probably closer to a 4.5, but it wasn't intensely "pumpkin" just a great beer. It also came very late in the night and we were feeling no pain, so my memory of it isn't extremely sharp.

[bearmark]

I'm surprised that the Smashed Pumpkin faired so poorly. Last year I liked it a bit more than their Pumpkinhead, but they were similar in profile. In fact, Smashed Pumpkin was my favorite pumpkin ale last year. I haven't tried either this year, but I picked them up a couple of weeks ago. If you can find it, try Harpoon Imperial Pumpkin.

[Yeti]

The Smashed Pumpkin (as well as many of the others) were of "unknown" provenance in terms of how they found their way to me. It could have been a bottle from a year or two back, or it could have been refrigerated more than once, or just a bad bottle. I'll keep an eye out for the Harpoon.

[MyOldKyDram]

Pretty Things Fluffy White Rabbit, a Hoppy Triple. Great fruit w some earthy, grassy hops. Really creamy mouthfeel. Another winner from PT.

[smokinjoe]

Sittin' out back with Mrssmokinjoe after a great week. Big ol SA 2013 Narwhal Imperial Stout is tasting like Heaven.

[P&MLiquorsEric]

The Suede was very.... Very underwhelming...

Can't really place what I was tasting, I guess it was honey and flowers. Disappointing for a series that has been good.

On a side note, have a growler of Against the Grain's Citra Wet Ass Down and bottles of Bo & Luke ready for the uk vs bama and nlcs games tomorrow.

[Yeti]

A nice Nosferatu and a Double Dog that tasted like green apples. Strange.

[Tony]

Hopslam while watching Michigan State

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[OscarV]

Arcadia Ales Shipwreck Porter.

It is as advertised, 1 year in a 22 year old bourbon barrel.

Vanilla, oak and bourbon can be detected.

[MyOldKyDram]

Damn was so hoping to find some of this today. What I did find however...

6 x Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA

4 x Green Flash Green Bullet

4 x OB Ten Fiddy

4 x OB Deviant Dale's

8 x OB Gubna

1 x De'Proef Reinart Wild Ale

1 x De'Proef Broederlijke Liefde Saison

4 x Stone Enjoy By 11.12.13

1 x Epic Hop Syndrome

2 x Ballast Point Double IPA

1 x Jolly Pumpkin No 1 Pumpkin

1 x Great Divide Oatmeal Yeti

1 x AleSmith Speedway Stout

1 x Triple Digit Decimation

4 x Uinta Hop Notch IPA

[HighInTheMtns]

Damn was so hoping to find some of this today. What I did find however...

6 x Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA

4 x Green Flash Green Bullet

4 x OB Ten Fiddy

4 x OB Deviant Dale's

8 x OB Gubna

1 x De'Proef Reinart Wild Ale

1 x De'Proef Broederlijke Liefde Saison

4 x Stone Enjoy By 11.12.13

1 x Epic Hop Syndrome

2 x Ballast Point Double IPA

1 x Jolly Pumpkin No 1 Pumpkin

1 x Great Divide Oatmeal Yeti

1 x AleSmith Speedway Stout

1 x Triple Digit Decimation

4 x Uinta Hop Notch IPA

Very Yeti-esque.

[WAINWRIGHT]

Hell of a nice list Sean!

[WAINWRIGHT]

Some Green Bullet and it is GLORIOUS!

[Yeti]

Worked my last wedding of 2013 and celebrated my ass off afterward. Spent the evening in hoptopia. Poured Zombie Dust, Hopslam, and Alchemy Hour from the TPS "best 12 pack ever" then capped with a 3 Floyds Permanent Funeral my buddy me last week. Just damn fine pale ales, and not a moment too late as we're hitting porter/stout/barleywine time.

[MyOldKyDram]

Enjoy By 11.12.13 so good. Such great balance between the tropical fruits and resiny bitterness on the finish. Killer.

[Vosgar]

I know that Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale doesn't get a lot of love here.....but with a La Aurora 1495 robusto on this beautiful fall afternoon it's tasting damn good.

[Tony]

Sam Adams Octoberfest

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[P&MLiquorsEric]

Against the Grain - Bo and Luke. A perfect barrel aged stout.

[smokinjoe]

SA Flipside while alternating tween MNF and NLCS out on the back patio. The combo of a light-weight TV and 50' of coax cable is a beautiful thing.

[Restaurant man]

SA Flipside while alternating tween MNF and NLCS out on the back patio. The combo of a light-weight TV and 50' of coax cable is a beautiful thing.

You so damned lazy joe !!!!!

[jbrana]

Hey y'all, I'm getting married in December and just moved in with my fiance... In the move I came to the realization that I have all together too much beer in the cellar and I'm trying to downsize. Anyone interested in swapping some bourbon for my beer? I have a pretty extensive list including KBS, BCBS, BCBCS, Black Tuesday, BB Speedway Stout, and a lot more. PM me for a full list if interested.