Beer of the Day Podcast - It's the Great Pumpkin Show - September 30th, 2016

This is the Beer of the Day Podcast with Jeff Miller, Scott Sweeny and Dallas Heliker. I don't know what that says about pumpkin beers. You know people bailing when they saw the lineup. So this is a good show because none of us are huge fans of but I like it because we're going to try eight different beers without having to buy a six pack of each one. So I think there's a value right there at the beginning talk and I'm like the guy at Thanksgiving the kid at Thanksgiving that hates pumpkin pie and I was like What. How can you hate pumpkin pie. So I'm actually kind of excited though to try these pumpkin beers and experimental bit. Yeah well before you. Into the first one. Let me first mention that this podcast is going

to be coming out on September twenty eighth and what that means is a week from today when you for first hear this. We will be boarding a plane and heading to the east coast Boston and then we're going to be going around the New England states up there New Hampshire Maine and Vermont and we're going to be visiting breweries all around that area. So I've put on the website if you just go to beer the day dot com and you click features I have our initial i Tunes or area and that could change but just

so everyone knows that if you want to come out. Say hi to us have a beer. We're going to be at a bunch of breweries around that area on October sixth at noon we're going to be at smutty nose in Hampton New Hampshire at four o'clock we're going to be at allegation Portland Maine and at six thirty Thursday evening we're going to be at the main beer company in Freeport Maine the next day we're heading to Vermont. At three o'clock we're going to be at Hill farmstead in Greensboro at five o'clock

we're going to be at the alchemy best alchemy list in Stow Vermont and then we're going to close out the night at around nine P.M. it prohibit pig in Waterbury on Saturday. We're going to be at Magic Hat around noon in Burlington and then fiddlehead in Shelburne about three o'clock on Saturday. And then Sunday we're heading back home but on the way out of town before we head to the airport in Cambridge. We're going to be going to Lord hobo probably about one P.M. So check out the website. We're also going to post on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and we'll keep everybody up to date. So if you want to come out and say hi and you know try some beers of the day with us. You're more than welcome to. Man only in the northeast. Can we go to that many breweries in that many different states and so few days we can do that in California that's pretty cool. No yeah it's a much smaller states there you can actually drive multiple states in one day. If you ever made it to breweries in two different states in the same day it's going to happen it's going to happen. Yeah it's crazy. All right well enough jabbering let's get on to the first pumpkin beer. We have Brewing Company in Salt Lake City. Punkin Chunkin pumpkin ale what's it called Punk

and pump and pumpkin pumpkin ale. OK yeah you say it three times it's impossible. I have it as five percent. And we've been seeing a lot more of this brewery lately. We had one on the summer show. Apparently I mispronounced the name of it so kind of

like last week we did October fest last week and there was a lot of similar colorations I think it's going to be even more so this week we're going to see these amber colored orange amber colored beer. I mean your pumpkin beers tend to look like this. This one is quite clear very small little bubbles. But quite carbonated and just a thin white head. Not much lacing on that but that smell. I have not had a pumpkin beer in almost a year and that has such a unique aroma. Yeah it's pretty good this one smells pretty fresh pumpkin and then you do get some of that cinnamon spice on the aroma too. So I think this is going to be maybe more of your festive pumpkin ales Yeah I think so. I mean it's I mean it's not as much spice as I was thinking I mean I think there's a lot more spice in the aroma than I get on the taste. It's pretty mild on the. The flavor. I do get quite a bit of spice Arthur ours is pretty warm and sit out a while but I get that ginger bread kind of bready taste and then the pumpkin itself is pretty reserved but it kind of as a pumpkin pie taste. Would you say there's more spice flavors than pumpkin flavors. Yes but you know there's always a range of pumpkins pumpkin beers where some of them taste like fresh pumpkin

pulp and some of them taste like pumpkin pie and this one is on the side of pumpkin pie. Yeah and some have that like kind of chemical E. artificial taste. Hopefully not the case that I mean I think we really appreciate the ones I have that real authentic pumpkin flavor where you can where you know there are real pumpkins used in the making of the beer. Yeah I like this it's I mean I don't know for you guys but I'm It's the kind of like a nice dry kind of finish to a nice finish just kind of blends off nicely and yeah the spice on it. It's it's really good. I'm having a little bit of deja vu. We did a Pumpkin Show last year and the first beer we have that show is called SAR nak and it came in the jug. This tastes very much like that beer. It's I don't I don't think we could have picked out you know intentionally what we want to start with but it seems like this one and the one from last year were both kind of your typical pumpkin able to start at the start of the show. I think it's a very light beer. Like I think it's it's missing something. And I don't know if it's carbonation are just and he's a little bit more body to it. It's very light I mean it makes sense. We're starting with this. It's five percent. But this is I'm assuming this is going to be sort of the lightest beer that we're going to have tonight could very well be we to try to start light so it's kind of by design. Well before we get to the next year. Does anyone have any interest in beers they had this week they

wanted to mention I had one. I hope I never mentioned this before but I had the newest. Beer from the Firestone blue ponit distortion the series are doing so I had number three this week. I think it really just came out within the last week or two and

I've enjoyed this entire series. Number three was especially good. It has each one of these is made with a different type of hop and this one had a German hop but surprisingly it was really citrusy and juicy and fruity when I think of German hops I

think I'm more of a floral sort of taste but this was really citrusy and I liked it. I had it on tap today and I also bought a six pack that I'm going to try a couple this week and it just you know it's one of those beers that it doesn't blow you away but it's just really solid a very drink a bowl got a kind of dry mouth feel that I enjoy in an I.P.A. So if you haven't had this and you can get your hands on it. I think the whole series is really worth trying. Yeah I remember having that probably has been the year since I had it but I was always a big fan of that one off to look for the new one. Sweeney what was the beer you were mentioning. Oh you know what. Gosh this week had a lot of great bear but I think overall I'm I was so blown away tonight by field works. Seaman are so the same Monroe is just a really nice bright double I.P.A. that they're doing. It's unfiltered so it's got a little bit of cloudiness in it. You get pick up a lot of obviously the Citron notes but then it's got some sweetness on the back end when you're drinking it. So definitely just a really great beer. If you haven't tried it yet. Go just go check him out. I know they're out of Berkeley but they just actually opened up a little here in downtown Sacramento. So you can check them out there. We have. On the up and coming brewery. They have a lot of different beers. It's rare that I even get the same one twice. I think eventually they might settle down into a lineup. You know but it seems like now every time I have one of their beers it's a different era never had before which is fun as well. Yeah I want to move into the next one. This one's changing it up just a bit. This is the pumpkin spice Milk Stout from belching Beaver brewery in San Diego Vista California best known for their peanut butter stout I would say if there's fans out there that's I'm assuming it's their their most well known beer because everybody I talk to that mentions belching be rights because they like their peanut butter Stout The cool to try this one first time ever the pumpkin spice Milk Stout yet you have color was this is a dark brown beer with a kind of a light brown head dark tan head. Yeah there's kind of the different coloration in that in the head some of it. There's like some lighter areas and some darker areas which is quite a bit on that they're type of stout So I get that there is some light creeping through around the edges like a dark amber color but it's very dark I mean this is this is a classic stout color aroma wise I get a lot of cinnamon. There's just a little bit of the really dark roasted malt and then a lot of cinnamon. It almost is like you took cinnamon and you should get into a glass of milk or a White Russian or something and you kind of have that it's loading on top right. Floating on top. That's what I smell. It's almost like a little like a like a burnt pumpkin. Yeah I can see that I mean there's some burnt molasses and toffee type of flavors but it's got some spice too I think definitely the sentiment the Dallas mentioned but also size. Clover. Maybe I mean there's a there's a variety of spices that you pick up on a spear. I don't get too much of the Milk Stout flavors but I guess is a little bit. I mean it's got the mouth feel of a Milk Stout right I think that's really the big quality that makes the milk so it's just that it has a little bit more of a smoother milky type of consistency. Yeah so lactose probably it's good. I mean I think the Spice is a little

bit more in the aroma than in the taste but it's got the robust flavors that you expect from a stout I mean a little bit of coffee and chocolate as well I mean this is pretty well. Well balanced with the hops in the malts and I think it's a complex pair it's one of those pairs that you could you could name a ton of flavors you get from this. Yeah and it's also lighter bodied lighter mouthfeel it's not super heavy like you get a these doubts and they can get a little bit heavy but only it at five

point three percent. It doesn't get too too heavy on the tongue. Yeah I think Geoff said it's just super low. Well balanced in all the categories. I mean it's easy to drink. It's got a great nose on it. And yeah it's easy easy drink and I'm surprised that more Everyone wants to come out with the pumpkin tail and we'll talk about more about that in the news but I do like when someone takes has a different take on it a different style than you're just your standard amber colored pumpkin ale. This is refreshingly different. I think that's changed a lot over the years too. I mean when we first started drinking these it was just your standard pumpkin ale and now it's really interesting to see the writing and their supporters are stouts there's sours there's shells there's a barrel aged you name it like different areas are finding different ways to incorporate pumpkin into various styles of beer and I think that makes an interest. Otherwise we have a pretty boring show and hopefully we can make a little better with sobriety here. Agreed. All right let's get into the next beer. This is from Buffalo Bill's brewery in Hayward California and this is their pumpkin ale six percent. I think this was the first beer we had from Buffalo Bills was it not Jeff. Yeah it's got to be it's well I don't want to spoil anything but it's a very well regarded pumpkin ale. Now did you get to meet Buffalo Bill. No I did not. Well I'm glad we're doing this because I've had this before. It's definitely one of the best pumpkin bears have ever had and we unfortunately did not have it on last year's pumpkin podcast so it's fitting that we had it this year I want us to try this and hopefully it lives up to its expectations so this is a little darker in color. It's a dark copper color. Well later than the last one though. Well yeah but I'm saying. Obviously the stout is darker but learn more dark then your average. Pumpkin you know average bill. It's kind of like a hog in a brown color. Yeah very little head the nose on it like just blows me away so far this nose like is just amazing. I get so much. Carmel on the top. It just smells so sweet. It just smells like fresh and real like pure Pumpkins were just thrown into this very recently like a

Carmel pumpkin covered pumpkin. Wow And then the taste is also pretty different. It's got sort of a darker mall to peace. There's a sweet pumpkin flavor and spiciness that comes out right away. It's kind of a kind of a floral bow kidney of those pumpkin spice see flavors that just overwhelm the census Yeah like right from the first taste it just really just ramps up all but I think what it is there's some sweetness but it's not too sweet. I mean I would not call this a sweet beer at first sip you get some initial kind of caramel like you mentioned maybe some brown sugar but it's really not sweet like after a couple SEPs and in the Finish it is the pumpkin players come through it just taste like this natural pumpkin without the sweetness and a little bit of spice maybe a little not making Cloe. Just really delicious flavors. Yeah we're eyes were on the first beer I said it was it tasted like a pumpkin pie. This one doesn't taste like a pumpkin pie it tastes like like a yam like a pumpkin you know what I mean like a I got a skin yam with cinnamon just like a robust and and hearty you know as more of a hearty pumpkin. It's like yams with brown sugar and marshmallows Exactly yes. Yeah I say that this will and it's a pumpkin beer but it's one that you could drink well into the Thanksgiving season. You know it's like a point it gets more it's kind of festive and you could have this for during the holidays. You know you can stretch this to Christmas if you want to. I wonder this does taste a little bit different than last year and I'm I'm curious if they mix up the recipe because it's such a highly regarded pumpkin ale that you would think they'd want that consistency but from what I recall this takes a little bit different from last year's recipe and it's not neither neither good nor bad. I just don't remember it being this dark and the dark malts that you mentioned I just I feel it's a little. It different from last year. So like it you feel like it's a little bit. Well it's a little bit heavier. I think it's winter. I think sweeter. I think there's less pumpkin flavors I think I think the pumpkin is a little bit more subtle This year I think so too. I wasn't. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to try a last year's version Buffalo Bill and I just kind of had a falling out. But this is amazing to me. I mean this. I mean I really like this. Yep that's a good one another to get into the beer news of the day with only one article today but it directly relates to the state of pumpkin beer in America and this was in Forbes And it basically talks about how last year the market was basically over saturated with pumpkin beers and they didn't sell out a lot of breweries lost money on it and so this year there's been an

adjustment and a lot of breweries are have cut back their production of pumpkin beers. Like last year. Sam Adams had two pumpkin beers they produced this year they're down to one shipyard which. Forty percent of its sales are pumpkin beers and last

year they had the smashed pumpkin and the. Pumpkin head and we had both of those on the show last year. But this year they decided to brew it in smaller batches and just release it. One batch at a time as the market allows because they're worried about over producing it last year I guess a lot of pumpkin beers didn't sell and they stay. On the shelf for months and months and it was a big fiasco. I think that's absolutely true. I mean I I go to you know places sell beer on a very regular basis and I haven't seen last year's pumpkin beers for a long time. Like all summer long. I was seeing last year's pumpkin beer still on the shelf and thinking geez who's going to buy that they don't they don't know any better because it's last year's beer but

I I think there's some truth to it. I mean it's mostly the shipyard in the Sam Adams that you mentioned the bigger breweries that just had too much supply sitting on the shelves and nobody was buying it. Yes So they said over production oversaturation underwhelming craft growth and overly hot autumn temperatures and all this was caused in turn by increased volume at the established brewery so they were making more pumpkin beer last year assuming they were going to sell it. New breweries were trying to cash in on the pumpkin craze so everybody was coming out with pumpkin beers and then fewer drinkers entering the market. Plus climate change when it's still hot out no one wants to drink. You know these autumn pumpkin beers. You know I think

overall the market just they just over estimated the demand for the for the pumpkin bear and. Maybe in some regard. You know I don't know if you could can say there weren't a lot of creative options. I mean there are there are and there were but. I think that when you have so many people produce seen different pump now it's just it's a limited market and I don't know what you guys think about that it is so certain breweries like Elysian they have eight different pumpkin beers on tap at their brewery locations and they have four brew for pumpkin beers and they released to the public and distributed mask. They still this year have people lined up down the street for their pumpkin release and I guess the Brewers that the breweries that are known for pumpkin beers can still you know get by and then they were talking about now everyone is cut back which is like leaving the door open for shipyard to actually be able to have a pretty good year because now it's not as saturated anymore everyone

has has adjusted so I do think we've seen a ton of growth though like you know we talked about the growth in the craft beer industry as a whole but we look at like a specific style like a pumpkin beer and several years ago. There are you go to the store. There's only two or three and then the next year there's like six or seven and then the next year there's like nine or ten and every year there seems to be more and more breweries jumping on this trend and maybe it just finally hit a peak where the market just can't sustain that many borís putting out a pumpkin bear yet. Now that being said there's still a lot of pumpkin beers at the store. Maybe not as many as last year but I personally bought twelve different pumpkin beers and we can only do eight on the show tonight. It's pretty much like a pumpkin patch but of beers pretty much. So I do think like in the grocery stores the number of pumpkin beers available is greatly reduced like for the masses but I think that for the craft

beer enthusiasm there's still plenty of pumpkin options for you to experiment with and that's what we're doing tonight. So let's get into the next one. This is from ale works Brewing Company Williamsburg Virginia. Our first Virginia Barris far as I can

recall. Yeah. We had this one shipped in special. So it's a about the same color as the first one from you a little bit more reddish color to it but it's very clear. Like copper dark amber color kind of standard then or had a little off white in color. I think it looks like what I would expect most pumpkin tails to look like. Yes me too. Now I'm just looking on the bottle I haven't tried it yet but right away. I see that seven point three percent on this on this guy so interesting to see how that's going to play in the taste. Yet step it up a little bit super smooth first step. I mean this is easy to drink. I can't believe it's seven point three percent. It's very smooth. I think it tastes a lot like pumpkin pie which is different from the last couple but it it really reminds me of just a smooth sort of creamy pumpkin pie with whipped cream on it. Oh my gosh I'm so happy that you said that because that's exactly what I was thinking when you were talking I was like oh my gosh I'm getting whipped cream. It's totally like that kind of like when cream topping totally makes this there is some fill in the spear maybe a little crust in there you know just a little bit of the right I think that's a good analogy because the crust is kind of the mall Tina's and you get a little bit of the darker more and that's kind of the crust and then you have the pumpkin fruit obviously which is there and then you get this weakness which is the whipped cream on top and then just the spiciness So

it's kind of the whole the whole pie but I like it. No you're right it's got though it's got it's the whole she bang and hand this is this is delicious. This is a really good. Yeah I think that in a way the higher alcohol has caused them to increase the sweetness a little bit to cover it up and that sweetness is actually adds to the whole flavor of the thing like sometimes you increase the alcohol and then the egg. Her sweetness is kind of a side effect a byproduct. But this really adds to the character of the beer. Yeah this screams holiday to me like I could totally see myself at the dinner table eat some turkey mashed potatoes cranberries. This would tear so well with all that food and with with the like you said the high the higher I'll

call in it it makes a little bit brighter and you get that sweetness and it's not too overly robust with with the spices it's just nice and balanced so balanced. I think there's very little spice in this I mean I'm looking at the label it says it's

roasted pumpkin and spices but I get very little spice I mean it's really just pumpkin and sweetness and that sort of the no a flavor. I mean this is an exceptional beer I just don't get the spice. Yeah it's my winner so far this is a great. Yeah I think this. I mean for me too. I think this kind of leads the pack. You know Buffalo Buffalo Bill didn't mazing job but this is this is right up my alley just props that they were going to break. I can't believe we're halfway done with the pumpkin beers already but we do have more to try including two from Anderson Valley there are more news and there are all all that and more when we come back here on the pier the day podcast or if you enjoyed this podcast and want to help us out. You can do so by telling your friends about it. That's the best way that we can grow is if you enjoy this podcast and you tell your craft drinking friends about it. And even better yet show them how to get a podcast a lot of people don't know how to download or

listen to podcasts so if you get their phone show them how to do. All of the app have been subscribed to it on i Tunes. I mean we're on i Tunes We're on stitcher or on Google Play where are pretty much anywhere you can get a podcast you can find here the day. So if you introduce your friends to us then that will help us out and increase our listenership if you want to help us out financially. You can do so by shopping on Amazon through the beer the day website. All you have to do is go to hear the day dot com on the right hand side there's a little Amazon banner you click that you do your regular shopping. It doesn't cost you a single penny more. And we get a little percentage a little kickback from Amazon and that helps us keep the lights on here and pay for all these damn pumpkin beers for example just this week somebody went to the beer the day website they clicked the banner and they bought a nine to five sterling silver one point eight millimeter for Garro Ching a talian crafted

necklace for women spring ring clasp. Looks like a very fine necklace that was actually me it's made for women. Scotty gosh they paid twenty four dollars ninety two cents for it which is a bargain for a necklace. Yeah and at four percent. We made ninety

nine cents so that ninety nine cents is going to award buying beer on a future podcast and we appreciate you doing your shopping through Amazon so that you can help us keep the lights on here. All right we got four more pumpkin beers to try. So let's get into our strange broo. Welcome back to the beer of the day podcast This is our Strange Brew segment where we find the strangest beer that we can find the theme. And tonight. It's funky pumpkin. It's a spiced sour from Boulevard Brewing Company Kansas City Missouri. Jeff and I have been there before and had a good time there. Now they have a brand new brewery taproom they just opened up so I can't wait to go back there. Probably my first pumpkin beer that is a spiced sour. There's a sour ale we think I think I actually wanted the pumpkin or I didn't have that one. You guys had that one without me. So this is still my first. I'm so excited to try this. I you have no idea just the idea of a pumpkin spice our is just crazy. I was unable to

go to Kansas City with you guys. I am banned from Kansas City but not from this not from this awesome spiced sour I can't stop you from drinking this. That's right. So this beer is a golden color depth of the light as beer we've had tonight thin white it is like that the typical theme of the evening as far as that goes champagne he kind of yeah very bubbly had a aroma I get just a slight pumpkin spice a little bit of pumpkin smell but it's pretty tame on their room for me and this is a good

beer for us to have because you know Bolt. Sometimes we have some beers that are very small market type of beers and that bowl of art. I think it's pretty readily available in most of the US. So I think it has a good one to have because all of our listeners can probably get their hands on this if they really want to do this is a very interesting beer. It starts off just like your standard pumpkin beer and then the sour kicks in. And it kind of is a kind of a strange milled of sour and pumpkin spice and I'm going to have to employ three separate here just to try and understand what's going on because it's it's a little bit odd like it's flavors that don't necessarily go together and I've got to figure this out. Yeah I'm super fuelled and on this. I think it's very sour at first I mean if there's pumpkin in here it's very subtle. I mean there's very little pumpkin flavor. It's much more about a sour. It's not too sour a little tart. It almost has like fruit tartness like Apple like green apple tartness I get like great yeah yeah I get I'm getting some fruit in there and I guess what I want to go back to is it's like a pumpkin champagne to me. I mean I don't know I get that really crisp right I think the carbonation that you're thinking

of is like the mouth feel the carbonation it's kind of like a champagne. Yeah type of thing. Yeah it's a yes trains one which is the this is the strange brew segment so the mouse feel the mouth feel and I don't want to say it's that but it's not as dry or something like you would get with the champagne but the sour Ines with it and the bright notes and they carbonation levels on it. You can't have that feeling. I do get the grapefruit fruitiness Jeff mentioned earlier that some pumpkin beers have artificial tasting pumpkin. There's something about this. That's a little bit plasticky to me like I don't it doesn't taste like fresh pumpkin. And I I know what you're talking about. I think it's the sour notes though I think it's just the

astringency that I that I pick up on and. Some sour beers and some tart beers. I definitely know where you're coming from but I think it's that type of I mean I think a sour beer at pumpkin as is definitely not something we're used to this is the first I've ever had and it's interesting but it's I think that leads to that sort of artificial flavor you're picking up on I think it's just I think that's exactly right. I think that it's types of flavors a don't naturally meld together and but the fact that they are doing it is. Experimental I would say and I think that's exactly what the purpose of the segment of the show is is to have something that's a little different than you've ever had before. So let me ask you guys one more question on this. I mean this is called the funky pumpkin which I get some funk from the spear. But it's also kind of spiced sour you really get the spice Very little bit very reserved I think the sour overwhelms any spice that's in there. Yeah I don't get any spice at all. It's too. It's too bright. There's a little bit of funkiness. If anything else I was looking for a little bit more pumpkin and I was looking for a little bit more sour. It was almost a little bit to kind of just mellow. I guess for sour. So in the fridge right now I have the funkier pumpkin. So this is five point eight percent the func funkier pumpkin is eight point five percent. So it's stepping up the the ladder a little bit. So we'll try that one later on but we want to keep the show to

eight so we're not going to do the the funkier pumpkin on the show tonight but will tease it and will feature on the website later on. Let's get into the next beer. We have pumpkin down and this is another style that you don't normally see associated with pumpkin. This is a Scottish ale with pumpkin from Dallas point Brewing Company San Diego. So you don't need to make the sound. Effect. It doesn't. So so color wise. This is dark like a couple of the Bears we've had tonight but it is the most read out of all of them. I mean there's a very apparent reddish hue to this still clear clean looking with a tan off white head on the aroma. I get a really fresh pumpkin smell. I don't know any of the spiciness but I just get like a it's not quite.

We need just cut open a pumpkin. But it's bordering on that is really pumpkin fruit as opposed to like spicy pumpkin pie. So on the taste. This one is more on the Mall to your side. I mean there are some roasted malt flavors and it's a Scottish ale.

So yeah it's going to be that the red color and the mall Tina's is not a lot of pumpkin I mean there's some pumpkin flavors it's somewhat subtle it's mostly roasted malt a little bit of spice but not a lot. I mean this is pretty well balanced and mellow beer not not difficult to drink. I mean it's only five point eight percent. I remember they're going to go. I remember piper down being a little heavier than this. I think this is a little bit lighter than piper down. It seems like it. Yeah yeah I think it's more towards a Scottish ale with like just a touch of pumpkin. I think that and I think that was intentional. I think they don't want to overdo it. But I think that that works well with this and I get some earthy hops a little bit of sweetness but it's not too sweet. I it's not a sweet beer but there's some sweetness. It is lighter I mean I expected this to be a heavier beer with a more full body than I'm picking up on but it's good I like it it's better than I expected you know

Scottish ales tend to be heavier like. Read heavier read a ILS this is not that this is a lighter body beer in pumpkin beers tend to pack the pumpkin you know you want to get what you pay for and this pulls the pumpkin way back. So it's it's not super Scottish It's not super pumpkin but what it is is a drink it will be here with a pretty good balance of the roasted dark malt and the sweetness. Yeah I mean here's the thing too. I mean how many Scottish ales have we had that have been a five point eight percent. They're normally kind of you know off the charts. Really. Yeah they get up to eight or nine and I think this is good. There's some definitely you pick up on the Scottish ale flavors but there's some brown sugar there's some spice that Senate a little bit of cinnamon and nutmeg all spice that I think you expect from this pumpkin type of beers but it's very well balanced I mean there's also some hopping there's some multi NESA I mean it's a lot of different flavors I mean this is one of those complex but well balanced pears. We've had a lot of beers from Dallas point recently and this is for sure the my favorite of the ones that we've had in a while. Agreed better than the October Fest one incoming transmission. You got mail. Comments This Week on Facebook. Timothy So tak our buddy from New Hampshire. We're going to be at your neighborhood. Tim He posted a picture of Firestone Helder Rado two thousand and sixteen. He says this is beautiful tasty complex and for eleven point eight percent A.B.V. drinks Very Easy Bowl Guardian is always tasty What year was that. So he posted that on our old guardian we featured that last Saturday and. The one I posted was two thousand and fifteen. We've actually had it. It was about a year old and those ones if you can get them they age incredibly well. So definitely stone does a good job with that on Instagram Instagram at beer the day site life dot catchers wrote Jeff posted a picture of else agree with those grand Hill I.P.A. life catchers wrote We just can't stop looking at your truly breathtaking pics as beginners in this crazy Instagram world we'd love to hear feedback from you keep this amazing work up. Can't wait to see. Can't wait to see more about that. Jeff at some

high praise for your photo photography skills. I love it. You know that feedback it's it takes a lot of work to bring colors Beren take all those photos so good to get that positive feedback from our fans. Yeah and that was a really good photo that maybe one of your best yet if you have any comments you can send them to us at feedback at Pier the day dot com by email or you can go to Facebook Facebook dot com slash the beer the day we're on Twitter at beer of the day and on Instagram at Pier the

day site or if you want to just leave comments on the website create an account you can leave a comment below any beer the day any podcast every page on the site allows you to leave comments right there on the page. It's going to the next beer. From Anderson Valley Brewing Company. A V B C in Boonville California we have fall horn in pumpkin ale. I have it and and I see you guys have a this beer. Yeah I bought it. One can and one bottle but we'd opted for the bomb. This is been a beer. This is been a pumpkin beer that's been around for the last several years and I think near the beginning of the show I mentioned my my POP two favorite pumpkin beers last year were Buffalo Bills pumpkin ale and this one the Anderson Valley foreigner and so we

didn't have either one on the podcast last year. I'm glad we have a bowl this year. Again I don't mean to spoil it but I have very high expectations for the spear. So this is darker in color than your standard pumpkin beer it's it's almost like a dark

rust colored like dark a little red a little red right. Little rather on the edges like it's very very dark dark dark amber very little head on this one mind has a lot of head I don't know if it's just because it came out of the can and I didn't for a while but out of all of these this has the biggest foamy S. head that I've seen tonight. It smells a little like Jeff Jeff holders up really quick to the screen and we see. Oh yeah he gets it head on that maybe that's one of those differences

between the cans in the bottle that we talked about a lot could do it very well be. Maybe carbonation a little bit higher would be the room is pretty subtle but I do get a fair amount of the it's like a darker pumpkin pie smell like maybe you left in the oven a little too long. I think there's a lot more spice in the spear there's there's a pumpkin flavor S. but there's the clove the nutmeg the cinnamon all spice and they don't they don't kill the flavor by any means but they're sort of in the background and they enhance the flavor of this beer the all spice it just lingers on even after take a sip and I'm sitting here thirty seconds later I get that if I still have it on my tongue is like it's quite spicy. Is it too much. What do you guys say I mean like is it a little bit too much on the spice. I don't think so. I think there's the right amount of spice I mean it's it's spite. There's more spice than some of the other bears we've had tonight. There's a little less pumpkin. But I think it adds to the flavor and I think what stands out to me in the spear is like the creamy Well carbonated mouthfeel it's just a very drink a ball with the sort of spice in the background. Isn't also less sweet than I think any beer we've had tonight. It's a little bit. There's a little bitterness it's on the tongue for me. Yeah there's a finish. There's some hop bitterness in that lingers definitely and none of these beers are super happy but this one has a little bit of that earthy spicy hop that sticks around for wow yeah it's got it's a flea it's a flea spicy. And I'm trying to I'm still trying to kind of figure it out but you know for me it might be just a little bit too much on the spice but it's complex. You know you know complex pumpkin beer. Yeah I do like the fact that they held back on the sweetness so many of these beers can tend to get over sweet so you can't really drink too many of them because your pal will grow tired of it. This here has the dryness and has the slight bitterness that. I think makes it more of a six pack type of beer than it is a one and done type of thing. Yeah I mean I just me personally I it goes hand in hand you have you have sweet and then you have rich and to me this is very very rich on that on the on the palate. I can see that I mean it's not a sweet beer. Right. I get the richness I mean it's it's pretty full bodied as as far as pumpkin berries go I mean compare this to the U.S. or the Belgian be very and this has a ton more body behind it. Yeah. Those were all the lighter type style beers and six percent that's pretty that's respectable you know full on Pale Ale range. I will. Let's try the next one. So this is the bigger brother of fall horn and this is pinch E.G. bar all barrel aged pumpkin ale what's pinch E.G. borrow mean anyone speak don't know anyone speak mutely I have an idea what it means but I don't know if we can say that all right. I got it is bootlicking for Stinney Jack and stinky Jack perhaps also known as Jack the smith drunk Jack or jack of the Lamb turn is the mythical character associated with all hollows Eve So it basically means jack o'lantern barrel aged eight point five percent this beer looks to be almost exactly the same color as the last beer.

Maybe just a touch lighter. Yeah it's a different here you have brown. It's as maybe I'd say more brown than red. It's pretty dark though I mean it's it's not like dark brown like the belching beaver. But it's a it's a dark ish reddish brown color. Yeah I called the last one rust and I call this one rust. This is maybe this one's extra Rusty. So let me just aroma wise say something about this when I have not taken a step yet this beer smells like a bourbon. Barrel. Now this is our first bourbon barrel pumpkin ale you know the only one of tonight's show have not taken a step and it just in a very positive way reeks of bourbon. It does smell that rough air tester. So love bourbon it's so good but the pumpkin is there for sure I get that too. I get the sweetness who man there must've been some bourbon left in that barrel when that's when there. I think this is more than eight point five percent right there was there was some bourbon flavor on the initial taste and not just a subtlety. I mean I really got some bourbon kick to it so much so that I didn't even detect the pumpkin right away. I have to sip it again just to see if I can get that. Yeah I mean you could put this in Iraq's class and. Have a nice cocktail. It's like oh it's not that that you know I mean it's not that strong but it's no bit like if you were to have like instead of bourbon and coke you had like bourbon Porter beer or something like that then it doesn't taste like that this could work. Yeah I think you know that works but it's aged in barrels from Wild Turkey which all of us have had wild turkey in our lifetime. Probably some bourbon left in the barrel I'm sure I mean it imparts that flavor as it ages but it's incredibly smooth I mean I I don't get much pumpkin flavor there's a little bit what I get more from this beer is like the vanilla and the oak players that come from that barrow when it's not their own ages. It really picks up on the vanilla and the oak flavors definitely So much so that I really

don't get much pumpkin here and it's very little. I mean if I had this not knowing. It was a pumpkin beer. I don't know that I would guess there was any pumpkin labor in this at all. I think I think is there but it hits the palate at the exact same time as the bourbon flavor does and the bourbon just completely outweighs and overshadows the pumpkin. I do get like two flavors at the same time and it's really hard to detect that pumpkin flavor. There's something else too. There's some other flavor. Yeah I'm trying to figure that out and I I'm just like I get it. I know what it is coconut is going to coke and I have another step. It is totally coke and I think you hit it. Jeff I think there is coconut in this. It's like a Coke it is a sweet flavor and there is some sweetness to this that I can see where you where you get that. Yeah I'm coming in that too. It's smooth. So this is so well balanced. I mean this is this is delicious. It's a nice little for me it's a nice little sip or it tastes a little bit stronger than eight point five percent. I mean it just from the beers of you know of past of the past but I could definitely once again this would be great with some great food in front of you just good company in a way. Agreed Dallas what do you think is eight point five. Well below on the scale for bourbon barrel age beer. It's low for sure. Certainly not in the with the flavor here though. Like I wouldn't want to go any stronger than this because it's I do get the bourbon taste for sure. Yeah that's what's confusing about it to me is that you know to taste it and and look at it it's eight point five percent. Well and you tasted it. I or than that. This is one of those beers that maybe it's just because there's a turkey on the label but I would. I love to just sit down at a Thanksgiving dinner with my family and enjoy this beer. I think we're seeing that a lot of these beers where they're really like that they're more festive a lot of them where you want to have them on the on a holiday but they're only available like September and October so you've got to buy em now some of these were aged better than others but buy it now a bit her Thanksgiving and Christmas and it'll do well or maybe corn that article it might still be on the shelf with some Christmas Day So I guess we won't know until we see if that's the case this year. All right well let's try and figure out what our favorite beer the day was Jeff you want to take us through and recap the beers we had. Absolutely. So we ate beers tonight. First we started out with the U.S. pumpkin punk pumpkin ale from Salt Lake City Utah. Next we had the belching Beaver pumpkin spice Milk Stout from San Diego and then we moved into Buffalo Bill's pumpkin ale

from Hayward California right before the break we have the ale works pumpkin ale from Williamsburg Virginia after the break we had our Strange Brew the bowl of our it funky pumpkin the spiced sour Ale and then we had the ballast point pumpkin down which is a Scottish ale with pumpkin and we ended the show with two beers from Anderson Valley first we had to fall hard N.. I'm going to fail. And then we had to borrow the bourbon barrel aged pumpkin ale both of those from whom Bill California are on the spin the wheel and we'll see who goes first. Today to pick their favorite beer of the day. Thank you. Scotty's first. OK so the beer of the day for me is the L. works pumpkin. I thought of all the pumpkin tails that we had today just super delicious I love the fact it was seven point four percent. It was bright. It was well balanced. It was everything that I think a great pumpkin L. should be and that is my pick for bear the day I'm going to concur with Scott that beer was something else. It

was exactly what you want for what you want in a pumpkin ale and it had a nice amount of pumpkin flavor balance with the spices the kind of fist of spices. It was full bodied seven point four percent plenty of alcohol in that beer and it was all just balance together in such a smooth package that boy if you want to pumpkin be your. Just go for that one. All right well it's going to be a unanimous vote tonight. I concur with you guys. It works pumpkin ale was was my favorite and I and I just I do want to say like we always make fun of the show that nobody ever wants to do a pumpkin beer show but once we actually do it. There's some pretty good beers I mean most of these beers tonight were very good and they're tasty beers and everybody like again they make fun of it but there are some good beer steins I and I like the Buffalo Bill Buffalo Bill's pumpkin ale but for sure the El works pumpkin I was most my favorite just that pumpkin pie flavor with the Cool Whip. I definitely tasted though the whipped cream of the co-op they were super smooth by far the best beer that I had. So it's a unanimous vote works pumpkin ale from Williamsburg Virginia excellent selection. Yeah I mean we had some pretty good pumpkin beers in that So Britain and Joel and Andy and Stephen Kiran brand and everybody else has ever been on the show and you don't want to do a Pumpkin Show Well you missed out tonight and guess what. I don't like pumpkin pie and I just found a great pumpkin Al that I would totally drink. Anytime. All right well that's going to close out our show for tonight we've got to try eight different pumpkin beers and they're all a little bit different. Which was great. There wasn't it was a couple that were similar but we got to try different styles and I think that's keeps the show interesting and I'm actually looking forward to next year's pumpkin beer pumpkin beer show one week from today Jeff and I are get on the airplane and fly into Boston and then we're going to be touring around New Hampshire Maine and Vermont you go to beer the day dot com and you click on the features section I have a map there and a. I Tunes or area of all the different breweries we're going to go to so go there figure out what works for you if you

live in the area you want to come out. Say hi to us have a beer with us. Check out some of these northeast breweries and it's going to be a lot of fun to definitely check that out next week we have a show with a bunch of beers from all across the country. We've been ordering beers that we can't get here in California and we're going to try those out. Are we will see you next time for Jeff Miller and Scott Sweeney. I'm Dallas Heliker. This has been the beer of the day podcast.