Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Fall beer drinking guide: 10 beers, including pumpkin-flavored ale, worth trying

For beer connoisseurs, this is one of the best times of the year.

With the leaves falling and temperatures dropping, this year’s selection of fall-inspired beers is starting to hit the shelves.

Using information from BeerAdvocate, here are some of the best seasonal beers to try this autumn:

1. Samuel Adams Octoberfest: The undisputed king of fall beers is the Samuel Adams Octoberfest. This amber-colored Märzen sits high atop the throne when it comes to sales across the country. The sales are actually so good that Samuel Adams slowly expands its window of availability every year to squeeze every drop out of this fall-time favorite.

2. Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest: One of the most respected breweries in the country has finally joined in on the Oktoberfest fun. This year is Sierra Nevada’s first shot at this famous beer style, and they knocked it out of the park. This Märzen is amber-to-orange in color, and has a very light malty flavor.

3. Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale: A distant second in sales behind Samuel Adams Octoberfest, Shipyard’s Pumpkinhead Ale has become one of America’s favorite pumpkin ales. This ale has a lower alcohol content than the first two on the list, and has a strong pumpkin flavor, with hints of cinnamon and allspice.

4. Dogfish Head Pumpkin Ale: Another popular pumpkin ale comes from the one of the best craft breweries in the United States; Dogfish Head in Delaware. This brown, pumpkin ale is much darker than Shipyard’s and has much higher alcohol content. The taste is sweet with strong pumpkin and brown sugar flavors.

5. Leinenkugel’s Harvest Patch Shandy: This vegetable beer tastes like liquid pumpkin pie. Famous for their summertime favorite, Lemon Shandy, Leinenkugel’s has burst into the autumn market with their Harvest Patch Shandy. The shandy is a cloudy amber color and is one of the smoothest drinks, especially for newcomers to pumpkin-flavored beer.

6. BigLeaf Maple Autumn Red: This red ale strays from the pumpkin-flavored path, and instead ventures to the flavors of maple syrup. With a dark amber color, Autumn Red combines caramel malts and pale ales, giving it a hint of spice flavors but not nearly as strong as the others on this list. Last fall was its first appearance, and after great reviews and sales it is back again in 2015.

Click to enlarge photo

A case of Samuel Adams Fat Jack Pumpkin Ale on the shelves at Total Wine & More on Warm Springs Road in Henderson.

7. Rogue Pumpkin Patch Ale: Another pumpkin ale makes the list, this time from the Rogue brewery in Oregon. Like the other pumpkin ales this one is has strong pumpkin flavors, although it isn’t as sweet. The beer has more of a pumpkin bread flavor than pumpkin pie, and is also much darker in color than most pumpkin ales.

8. Samuel Adam’s Fat Jack: Making its second appearance on the list is Samuel Adams; This time with its version of a pumpkin ale. Coming in a 22-ounce bottle decorated with a ghoulish jack-o-lantern label, this strong double pumpkin ale is enough to kickstart Halloween night. With an alcohol by volume of 8.5 percent, Samuel Adams raises the bar with this beer.

9. Indian Wells Spicy Pumpkin Ale: Coming from California’s Indian Well’s Brewing Company, this pumpkin ale is as spicy as the name suggests. While it still maintains the pumpkin flavor of the others, the spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg are much more prevalent. It is clear and bright orange in color, and has a very spicy scent as well. In fact, the scent is much spicier than the taste itself.

10. Woodchuck Fall Harvest Hard Cider: The last spot on the list is reserved for those that aren’t high on pumpkin flavors, or even beer for that matter. Woodchuck’s fall harvest hard cider tastes exactly like apple pie, and with a respectable 5 percent alcohol by volume it packs just enough punch.

Jesse Granger can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Jesse on Twitter at twitter.com/JesseGranger_.

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