BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I really enjoy Southern Tier's Pumking. Closest I've had to pumpkin pie in a glass. Thirsty Dog's pumpkin ale is also pretty good, but Pumking is my favorite.

Dogfish Head's Punkin is my favorite, it tastes like a well spiced sugarless pumpkin pie.

It was extremely difficult to determine the best pumpkin ale. When you drink so many at one time one tends to forget... So you have to keep trying until a beer so memorable travels past the fog and borrows into the reptilian part of the brain - so as to never be forgotten again.

Absolutely no one within the Pittsburgh area should drink Southern Tier's Pumking without my thorough safety check* of every bottle opened and every glass poured.

*minimum one gulp.

I prefer beer flavored beer and the best tasting beer is free beer

I was at Pistella (Friendship, Penn & Stratford) yesterday and they have a half pallet of Pumking for something like $85 a case O_o

pumking is almost certainly the beer you tried. i don't care one whit for pumpkin ales, or any ales with spice, really, but even i have to try that one every year. you should also give the weyerbacher a try.

incidentally, draft beer isn't better. that's a myth. in fact, for any beer of sufficient quality, the only way to make it is in a bottle. what you want is to not drink it out of the bottle. pour it into a glass so you can really experience it.

yeah that case thing really bugs me. it's absurd to believe you have to spend $40 just to try a beer. that said, you should go to d's and grab a sixer from the beer cave. mix and match and have a night with a friend or two where you try a little bit of each one.

I can look forward to having a few and that's enough until next year... and the whole thing is starting to get a bit out of hand, kind of like overly hopped ales.

I'll have to disagree on the "draft beer is a myth" thing, but to each his own. Personally, I go both ways.

On a marginally related note, I just cracked a growler of the east end honey heather... it's definitely on the "recommended" list.

@Kayla: Yes, +1 to the Southern Tier. I've not been drinking beer much these (mmmmm, bourbon), but I have one at a friend's last weekend, and was quite impressed.

Apparently the amount of Pumking is severely limited, thus the high price tag. I agree with HV, though: if you want to sample, head to the magical beer cave at D's.

Yup Pumking. It's just under 8% and served on draft or in big bottles. Bought a case at McBroom's and had to ask for it by name. Dogfish head's Punkin is good too.

I tried it at OTB last fall, but they only had it for a week or two.

Michigan Brewing's Screamin' Pumpkin is my favorite. Has more spice to it than Pumking - all depends on what you look for in a pumpkin pie.

Last year, I realized I hate all pumpkin beers.

^this

+1 (I've never found a pumpkin beer that I like)

Some of the local Thai places make excellent green curry w/ pumpkin & other "winter" squashes. You could order that & chase it with a Singha beer?

I loved the Rivertown Pourhouse's Pumpkin ale, but if you're not careful to ask them not to, they rim the glass in cinnamon and sugar (ugh, the beer is a dessert by itself that just made it gross). You can get a growler of it I think. I think I like that idea

I bought a friend a mix n matched bunch of beers at D's a few years ago, didn't have to buy the whole case or a whole six pack, just bought a bunch of beers. Well, that's what I remember. This was after I made sure I was getting him good stuff, so I may not have the most accurate memory.

I have a penchant for medium/red beers (not sweet, just not dark or light either - medium), so this summer fad for having hoppy beers or really dark beers only is killing me. I'll be very glad for the fall beers (at least until someone starts a hoppy fall beer fad).

speaking of autumn beers... I just got a growler of East End Big Hop Harvest at the Public Market. They'll have their Nunkin Ale on tap starting tomorrow.

@HV Do you mean simply bottled or bottle conditioned? I'm not sure how someone's personal preference can be considered a myth...

just got an email from hough's in greenfield—they are tapping a firkin of pumking tonight, with the southern tier brewers on hand!

@dmtroyer - bottled beer is, in general, the exact same thing as kegged beer. for most commercial brewers, there is essentially no difference at all. the problem is that most people drink bottled beer out of the bottle, which is why they prefer draft beer. the opposite is occasionally true of crappy beers—some people prefer them out of bottles because it hides some of the flavor. the myth isn't that people prefer draft or bottled beer, but that they are somehow different.

now, draft beer can come through dirty lines, or have the carbonation tweaked, and bottled beer can be bottle conditioned (which is what i was referring to when i talked about beer of "sufficient quality", but i was just being flippant), or be damaged by light. but these are incidental, and only refer to specific samples of the beer. the vast majority of the time, people who think they prefer draft beer should just try drinking bottled beer out of a glass.

@HV all good points, somehow I came to the conclusion that kegs probably have less of a chance of sitting in a distributor warehouse or bar stockroom for ages, but that's probably not true. But if all of those issues that you listed are incidental, draft beer should be just as good as bottled, and at least uses reused containers.

I don't really care for spiced beers too much, as some others posters. But pumpkin beers have there time and place, like right now, and in my belly.

I'm hoping the Big Pour tomorrow will introduce me to some more fall deliciousness.

Who all is going to the Big Pour? I snagged a couple tickets to the noon session from Scott at East End, looking forward to finally going to this thing.

In an unrelated note, I am disappointed to find that green mountain is the only company that makes pumpkin coffee k cups.

I bought a few at D's today. Just tried the imperial and I hate it. Yuck.