Celebrate Fall with a Pumpkin Beer Tasting
I don’t care what anyone says, pumpkin beer is great. But I get it, it’s one of those things that you either love or hate. Luckily, all three of us are here for it.
To celebrate the fact that it’s officially October and the Thanksgiving weekend is coming, we set out to find our favourite pumpkin beer. And the only way to do that is to taste them all. So this #SundayFunday that’s exactly what we’re doing.
We grabbed all the pumpkin beer we could find at the liquor store, covered them in paper bags, numbered them and poured each one into a flight glass. We took it one beer at a time, rating them for their smell, pumpkin flavour and crushability (a crucial component), then giving them an overall score.
We had an awesome time, so we’ve broken down how you can have a tasting of your own.
- Various pumpkin beers (we used 6)
- Paper Bags
- Sharpie
- Name Tags (optional)
- Flight glasses
- Notebook (if you want to capture tasting notes!)
Start by covering each beer in a paper bag, then give it a number. Then, pour each one into a flight glass. Get your tasting sheet ready and start the process by giving it a smell. Record your notes and then give it a taste. You’ll want to take several sips before you record your notes. Before giving it an overall score out of 10, we recommend tasting each one. You can then go back and taste each one again, but you’ll be able to give each one a fair score once you can compare them to one another.
Here are our notes from the process as well as our overall review of each one.
Beer 1: The pumpkin smell and flavour is very subtle with this one, so if that’s what you’re looking for this beer might be up your alley. There’s a not a ton of spice going on here, this beer relies heavily on pumpkin flavour. And it only mildy succeeds (burn!).
- Smell: 2/5
- Pumpkin Flavour: 1/5
- Crushability: High
- Overall Score: 3/10
Beer Revealed: Lake of Bays Pumpkin Ale, ABV 6%
Beer 2: This beer has a ton of fall flavours going on – nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon. It’s also very malty, with a minimal hoppy flavour. There’s definitely a sweetness to it as well, with a great honey flavour. Overall, a great beer.
- Smell: 4/5 (lots of clove!)
- Pumpkin Flavour: 3/5
- Crushability: High
- Overall Score: 8/10
Beer Revealed: Grand River Brewing, High Baller Pumpkin, ABV 5.3%
Beer 3: This one has really strong notes of vanilla, clove and sarsaparilla smells – like rootbeer. It’s a tad hoppy and really sweet. It’s a delicious beer, but it’s not one you’ll want to drink a lot of.
- Smell: 5/5 (lots of clove!)
- Pumpkin Flavour: 5/5
- Crushability: Low
- Overall Score: 9/10
Beer Revealed: Big Rig Spiced Pumpkin Porter, ABV 5.8%
Beer 4: This one smells a lot like chai spices, with caramel and maple notes. It basically tastes like pumpkin pie but manages to still be incredibly light. We all loved this one.
- Smell: 4/5 (lots of clove!)
- Pumpkin Flavour: 4/5
- Crushability: High
- Overall Score: 9/10
Beer Revealed: St. Ambrose Pumpkin Ale, ABV 5%
Beer 5: The beer packs mild cinnamon and spice flavours, but it’s also incredibly light and easy to drink. It’s not super flavourful, but it’s a decent beer overall.
- Smell: 3/5
- Pumpkin Flavour: 3/5
- Crushability: Medium
- Overall Score: 7/10
Beer Revealed: Great Lakes Brewery Pumpkin Ale, ABV 5.5%
Beer 6: This one tastes and smells a lot like Beer 5 tbh, but there squash flavours happening too. It’s a tad lighter than Beer 5, so it makes for even easier drinking
- Smell: 2/5
- Pumpkin Flavour: 3/5
- Crushability: Medium
- Overall Score: 6/10
Beer Revealed: Great Lakes Brewery Saison du Pump, ABV 5.2% (makes sense that it tastes like Beer 5!)
Indie Chill
We’ve got some chill jams for all that pumpkin beer drinking. Prepare yourself to enter a pumpkin beer induced zen-like state!
