The love affair continues

That is my love affair with all things pumpkin, most recently in the form of Pumpkin Ale.

Over the last couple of weeks I've sampled a few different Pumpkin Ales, all quite varied in sweetness, bitterness, and color.

First up was Wolaver's certified organic Will Stevens' Pumpkin Ale(pictured above and below) from Otter Creek Brewing Co. located in Middlebury, Vermont. That's a long name for a beer right? Well, the cool thing is Otter Creek bought 600 pounds of pumpkins from the Will Stevens' farm to incorporate into their pumpkin ale. Not only did they buy organic, but they gave this farmer credit and national recognition (beer is distributed at Whole Foods!). The beer itself is also pretty good providing a sweet but not too sweet flavor typical of such ales. This beer was also lighter than the others although I wouldn't say that it was the lightest of the 3 I tried, that would go to Blue Moon which I'll discuss in a moment.

I also tried a brew from Smuttynose Brewing Co. located in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In their version of this seasonal ale, Smuttynose also incorporates pumpkin and pumpkin spices into the mash. It was pretty good, but not my favorite. It seemed to heavy. Pumpkin ales shouldn't be described as bitter but I would say this one definitely was; however, the flavor of pumpkin was dead on.

Finally I tried Blue Moon's Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale. Blue Moon uses the flavor of vine-ripped pumpkin to make this full-bodied, smooth finish ale. I hate to admit it, because I would like to be all about small/local brewing companies, but Blue Moon was by far my favorite of the 3 ales I sampled. To me they do a great job of incorporating pumpkin while keeping the essence of a traditional Blue Moon.


Hope you give one a try! Pumpkin ales are usually available up to and throughout the month of November.

Nicole