The title says it all. I also don’t care for christmas (spiced) ales or any of the fruit ales I’ve tried.
Granted, i haven’t triem em all, but so far, nothing I care for.
Am I alone here ? The reason I’m asking is that I was shocked to see the number of pumpkin-type
beers that showed up at the local liquor stores recently. Obv someone is drinking these.
not all styles are for all brewers. I don’t like most (90%) of the wheat beers I’ve tried. I do like lambics, dunkelweizens, and weizenbocks though.
A lot of things are also context specific. I didn’t like beer at all until I had one on a hot day in Puerto Vallarta, age 15.
I wouldn’t want a pumpkin beer all the time, but it can be done right and those spices would certainly be complementary to some kinds of food - various fall fare like turkey with stuffing, cranberries, squash, etc. Also, and even moreso, Indian food.
On the wheat beer front, most North American wheat beer I’ve had is either a french or belgian style that I like less, or a North American interpretation of German wheat which misses the mark, or, worst of all, German Wheat that has seen better days (i.e. full of dead yeast). A Hefeweizen on draft in Munich is the best beer ever made.
I’ve never actually tried pumkin ale before. I imagine I would like to try it once or twice, but I doubt I would enjoy 5 gal of the stuff. Same with many other types of specialty beers. Once in a while maybe.
My general rule of thumb (as can be illustrated from the beer consumption post) is that I tend to gravitate toward beers that I can drink 10 or 15 of at a time.
What is the hangover like after 4-5 litres of Pumkin Ale? Does that stick around on the toung the next day?
[quote=“john57”]The title says it all. I also don’t care for christmas (spiced) ales or any of the fruit ales I’ve tried.
Granted, i haven’t triem em all, but so far, nothing I care for.
Am I alone here ? The reason I’m asking is that I was shocked to see the number of pumpkin-type
beers that showed up at the local liquor stores recently. Obv someone is drinking these.[/quote]
Im with you. People get so excited about them, mostly girls i think, but to me they taste like some one ate pumpkin pie then farted into the bottle and quickly capped to preserve the aroma and flavor. I was about to brew one but after tasting at least 6 different pumpkin ales while i waited for my ingredients to come i realized there was no way i could not choke through the 3 gallon batch i planned to brew. The makeshift recipe is smelling nice in fermentation so hopefully its a happy mistake.
I’m with you OP. Liked 'em at one point and grew out of 'em. In the height I brewed a batch where I roasted the pumpkins on a grill with wood charcoal and it’s just a bland beer with spices. I’ll never purchase or brew a pumpkin beer again. I bottled most of the batch but I still have a gallon or 2 in the keg which I’m contemplating dumping just for the keg space. It was a lot of work for nothing.
I prefer beer flavored beer…
I agree with one exception: Schlafly’s. I tried one and bought a six pack of it. Actually a very nice beer.
Do you like pumpkin pie ??
The best pumpkin beer doesn’t have any pumpkin spice in it, IMO. Just roasted, fresh pumpkin in the mash that adds a subtle, complementary flavor to the APA.
I’m not a big fan either, but my wife loves them. This fall I think ill make a brown or amber ale, and I will make a pumpkin spice tincture, so I can add some to a few bottles. Always gotta keep the wife happy. :cheers:
That pretty much says it for me too. My favorite pumpkin ales are the ones that contain no pumpkin, and no spices.
:cheers:
Along the same lines, I love a good Christmas/Holiday ale …but can’t stand the ones with spices added, and I even made it a point to try a bunch and give the concept a chance. Generally, the spices ruined what underneath was often a very good beer. Myself, I prefer the more traditional holiday beers that are on the order of an ‘Old’ or ‘Burton’ ale, and definitely not spiced.
I used to really like the Anchor Christmas Ales in the years before they started adding the spices.
Reminds me of a gruit ale I had once. Was really happy to have tried it - saved me from ever making a wormwood beer. The base beer was a great brown ale, I’d say.
Still, nothing wrong with a bottle or two of pumpkin beer as part of the greater diversity of the beer universe.
I did have one pumpkin beer that i liked. It that had a strong taste of freshly toasted pumpkin seeds but very little if any spice. If i ever brew a pumpkin beer it will be in that fashion i think its the spices i dont like
That pretty much says it for me too. My favorite pumpkin ales are the ones that contain no pumpkin, and no spices.
:cheers:
Along the same lines, I love a good Christmas/Holiday ale …but can’t stand the ones with spices added, and I even made it a point to try a bunch and give the concept a chance. Generally, the spices ruined what underneath was often a very good beer. Myself, I prefer the more traditional holiday beers that are on the order of an ‘Old’ or ‘Burton’ ale, and definitely not spiced.
I used to really like the Anchor Christmas Ales in the years before they started adding the spices.[/quote]
That’s why SN Celebration is my favorite Christmas beer.
I always want to like pumpkin/holiday beers, but (like was stated here) most of the time they are overdone and over-sweet.
I do recall liking New Holland’s Ichabod, wasn’t over the top. But I also have to be in the right mood for it. Like a dessert beer.
Shadetree have you ever found a commercial brew that is simply a pumpkin beer w/ no spice?
