If overly spiced isn't your thing Craig, I'd suggest only trying one 22 oz of the Southern Tier Pumpking. I thought they overdid the nutmeg, but that's JMO. Others love it.

Best one ive had, and probably the only thing I'll buy these days from Dogfish Head is their Punkin' Ale. Not overly spiced and a pretty easy fall drinker.

Now if a brewey could pull off a Pumpkin beer that was hoppy somehow..that'd be sweet. If it could be done though, it probably already would have. Gotta have my hops..

KPP wrote:

We have a tradition- the first Saturday in October, we wake up early and go get a pumpkin drink (latte or whatever) and some pumpkin bread. Then we go to the farmers market, roadside sellers, and various other places and pick out our pumpkins (we buy a lot). Then we do some other pumpkin related activities.......such as cutting a smaller hole in the side of the pumpkin than my peniz then spraying it with WD-40 til I can pound it in.We call it pounding pumpkin day.

One year some punk kids pounded a few and really jizzed up our biggest one (too big for 1 man...I figure maybe 6 of them assaulted it at once,a ménage à hexagon if you will). I have never seen my wife (girlfriend at the time) so angry at someone besides me.She really was looking forward to watching me and my friends filling it up. They better be glad we didn't catch them.

z6joker9 wrote:

We have a tradition- the first Saturday in October, we wake up early and go get a pumpkin drink (latte or whatever) and some pumpkin bread. Then we go to the farmers market, roadside sellers, and various other places and pick out our pumpkins (we buy a lot). Then we do some other pumpkin related activities. Go home, set up our pumpkins in the front and around the house. We call it pumpkin day.

z6joker9 wrote:

Its sad that summer is almost over (for most), but to me, the best thing about this time of year is the pumpkin ale. It may not be everyone's thing, but its certainly getting more popular with so many breweries coming out with their own version.

A few of the good pumpkin brews IMHO:

* Shipyard

* Southampton

*the saranac pumpkin ale

What have you tried? What can you recommend?

csiegels wrote:

I love pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread and the like. I don't think I've had a pumpkin ale beer yet though. I'm sure I'll get one soon in my microbrew beer of the month club deliveries to try soon though. This month's package just arrived and it's got some Octoberbest in it. (Love me some Octoberfest!)

crgcpro wrote:

I'm looking at brewing a smoked pumpkin ale. Going to use butternut squash instead of regular pumpkin (same flavors and available now), then smoke it on the grill, cut off the flesh, baked it for a while to caramelize sugars and make sure anything is kilt, then add at secondary. Never done one before, so not sure if it is going to end up spiced heavy or not.

lou2row wrote:

Pumpkin beer? Really??? Bunch of damn girls. Beer tastes like BEER not pumpkin. Sheesh I might brew some dog **** ale. I'm sure if I market it as a micro brew and price it high enough it would fly off the shelves.

grmcooper wrote:

Pumpkin beer? Really??? Bunch of damn girls. Beer tastes like BEER not pumpkin. Sheesh I might brew some dog **** ale. I'm sure if I market it as a micro brew and price it high enough it would fly off the shelves.

grmcooper wrote: