2014 Pumpkin Beer Tasting: Eylsian Dominates Once Again

After successful pumpkin beer tastings last year and the year before, Pumpkin Beer Night has officially become a thing.

This year we upped the ante in all ways possible. We're talking more pumpkin beers and ciders (24 to be exact), more decorations, and probably the most people that have ever been in our baby apartment at once.

As in years previous, everyone ranked the beers individually on a scale of 1 to 5... and just like the last two years, Elysian took the top two spots.

Here's some more detailed info about our group's Top 5 plus the rest of the rankings too:  

#1 Elysian Brewing Punkuccino (Seattle)

Doug and I tried this on our own a few weeks prior to Pumpkin beer night (thanks new Burnside Fred Meyer growler station) and had a pretty strong feeling that this beer was going to do very well at pumpkin beer night.

Elysian says, "Punkuccino packs a short shot of Stumptown coffee toddy in your pint with just a shake of cinnamon and nutmeg," so think of it as the best Pumpkin Spice Latte you've ever had that wants to get you drunk. So good. 




#2 Elysian Brewing Night Owl (Seattle)- Ranked #2 last year

Holding down the #2 spot for the second year a row, Elysian says this ale is "brewed with seven and a half pounds of pumpkin per barrel and spiced in conditioning with ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice." Seems like that's a recipe they should stick to.







 #3 First Edition Brewing Champion Pompion *homebrew* (Portland)

Doug and I agreed that this year's Champion Pompion is much more deserving of its high ranking than last year's Good Lawdy Miss Gordy. For this beer, Doug upped the pumpkin flavor by supplementing pumpkin puree with lots of fresh squash.







#4 Seattle Cider Co. Pumpkin Spice Cider (Seattle)

Seattle Cider Co. ferments their cider with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. It's perfect for your friends that love pumpkin-flavored alcohols but hate beer.









#5 Two Beers Pumpkin Spice (Seattle)- Ranked #3 last  year

This ale is made with cloves, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and natural pumpkin. The ginger is definitely a nice touch.







 

#6 First Edition Brewing Good Lawdy Miss Gourdy *homebrew* (Portland)- Ranked #4 last year












#7 Elysian Brewing The Great Pumpkin (Seattle, 2014)- Ranked #1 last year

#8 Harpoon UFO Pumpkin (Boston)- ranked #8 last year

 #9 Oakshire Big Black Jack Imperial Chocolate Pumpkin Porter (Eugene)- #17 last year, but #9 in 2013

#10 Elysian Brewing Dark O' The Moon Pumpkin Stout (Seattle)

#11 Laurelwood Pumpkin Ale (Portland)- ranked #12 last year

#12 Ace Cider Hard Pumpkin Cider (Sebastopol, CA)












#13 Burgess Brewing DD Pumpkin Ale *homebrew* (Vancouver, WA)

#14 Propolis Brewing Pepon (Port Townsend, WA)

#15 Midnight Sun Brewing TREAT Imperial Pumpkin Porter (Anchorage)- ranked #18 last year

#16 Pike Brewing Harlot's Harvest (Seattle) 

#17 Elysian Brewing The Great Pumpkin (Seattle, 2013)

Doug saved this beer to see how it would age. The answer was not well. So drink your pumpkin beers now, kids!









#18 Nathan's Brewing Co. Booooo Careful II (Portland)

#19 Anderson Valley Fall Hornin' Pumpkin Ale (Boonville, CA)

#20 Southern Tier Pumking (Lakewood, NY)

#21 Jolly Pumpkin La Parcela (Dexter, MI)

#22 Burnside Brewing The Dapper Skeleton (Portland)

I don't know if this one would normally be so low (Doug and I usually really like Burnside), but it's made with chiles and a spicy beer is kind of a shock when all the other beers you've been trying are on the sweet side.








#23 Uinta Punk'n Harvest Ale (SLC)- ranked last last year

#24 Buffalo Bills Brewery Pumpkin Ale (Hayward, CA)

This one is so bad that is deserves a warning. Do not buy it (unless you like things that taste like puke). 

 Any of your favorite pumpkin beers that we missed?

Boston Bars: Katie and Doug's Epic Boston Bar Crawl

Posted by Katie

So Doug came to visit. And we had a pretty amazing weekend.

Thursday night was spent at Charlie's Beer Garden followed by dinner at Tory Row (post coming soon).

On Friday, we had dinner at The Barking Crab, drinks at my very favorite place in Boston, Drink, and more drinks served by our fav bartender, Robby, at The Regal Beagle.

On Saturday, we hit up Newbury Street and then took the commuter rail out to the New England Revolution vs the Seattle Sounders game in Foxboro.

And then came Sunday. Ah Sunday...

Somehow Sunday turned into a bar crawl of epic proportions. Here's a map of our route if you don't believe me.

I know, right?

Let's talk about it.

Our crawl started with our tour of Harpoon Brewery at 3pm, which is the last tour of the day. If you want to go on the last tour too, you should make sure you're out at Harpoon by at least noon to buy your tickets, otherwise, you might not make it in.

I could tell you all about the Harpoon tour...but that might spoil the fun if you want to go on it. All you really need to know is that the tour takes about 15 minutes and then you have 30 minutes to "sample" aka chug as much beer as you want. Fun!

Because Doug and I were a little tipsy, and because I sometimes have trouble estimating how far apart things actually are, we then decided to walk to the original Cheers across from the Public Garden. What I assumed would be a quick walk actually turned out to be a 2.3 mile trek. Oops. At least we really appreciated those beers once we finally got them...

I can't remember what Doug had but I tried the Purple Haze brewed by Abita in Louisiana. The bartender described it as a Blue Moon with a hint a raspberry. Tasty.

From there, we were off to dinner at Toro. I had so much fun when I went there with the fam, but I wanted to take Doug there too because I knew he would try some of the weirder things with me.

We started off with the more normal, ordering the ceviche and patatas bravas (fried potatoes). Then it got a little more fun. We tried the mussels with blood sausage, which were very good. And then came the crown jewel of our meal: Asado de Huesos. That's roasted bone marrow with radish citrus salad and oxtail marmalade.

The bone marrow was rich and creamy and Doug and I both loved the sweet oxtail marmalade. Having a few beers in our systems probably helped reduce the gross-out factor...but it was so good that I would order it again, even completely sober. Ha.

From there, we decided to head out to Cambridge. We stopped in at Grendel's for a round of beer and some shots. Now, shots and I are not the good friends we once were, but Doug convinced me that I needed to try his favorite shot, a Dead Nazi. Dead Nazis are made with Jager and Rumple Minze peppermint liqueur.

Sounds kinda gross, but they're actually not bad. Went down much smoother than the shots of Patron or, gag me, SoCo Lime that I've been treated to at bars before. Good choice, Doug.

From there, we hopped across the alley to Tommy Doyle's. There was a great band playing upstairs so we stayed for quite awhile.

An hour or so later, the roomie and her friend Erica were done with their movie, so we all met up at Sunset Grill & Tap in Allston. I had a one of their many pumpkin ales which I think I enjoyed? They'll rim your glass with cinnamon and sugar if you ask nicely. Fancy.

And then Doug went on a photo-taking frenzy.

The End.