HALLOWEEN
SPECIAL!
Lucia 'Nosferatu' Novara conducts a head-to-head pumpkin
beer review.
"Beers of the world, unite!"
The UNOB slogan
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Pumpkin beer review: Blue Moon Harvest Moon vs
Lakefront Pumpkin lager
Submitted
by Lucia 'Nosferatu' Novara
When the Great Beer Editor in the Sky
asked for a quick
pumpkin ale review from Colorado,
I thought I would get two of the local brews and compare them. Tons of
breweries around here have pumpkin seasonals, so it seemed like an easy
task.
Four liquor stores later I was finally in possession of two six-packs of pumpkin ale. One is officially brewed in Colorado, but for the other I had to settle for a Wisconsin brew.
It seems that Denver-area alcohol distribution centers woefully, woefully underestimated the popularity of pumpkin seasonals.
Message to Shopkeeps Across the Land: It’s Halloween, people! I'm no marketing guru, but I’m pretty sure it's time to backorder plus-sized fishnet stockings, candy, Jack-o-Lantern themed condoms and most importantly, pumpkin ale!
Finally I walked away with Blue Moon Harvest Moon Pumpkin ale
and Lakefront Pumpkin
Lager from the Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
It made for an awesome Mid-West
vs. For-Real West showdown, similar to a Detroit Pistons vs. Denver
Nuggets basketball
game. Except in this scenario the West stood a chance.
In keeping with the theme of the evening, I sipped both these brews while carving a badass skeleton pirate on a pumpkin. The smell of the fresh pumpkin might have made both of them taste even more pumpkin-licious, but I’m pretty sure they were great on their own.
The two beers wrestled it out throughout the evening and both made stunning plays for my taste buds' good opinion, but in the end there was a clear winner. Lakefront took home the trophy and also probably slept with Blue Moon's girlfriend after the game. (Hopefully it used a Jack-o-Lantern condom. Ed.)
It's a lager, which makes it freak show in the world of pumpkin seasonals (most are ales because they take less time to brew). The Lakefront brought an all-spice offense with nutmeg and cinnamon flavors at the forefront. Since it's a lager it had more carbonation than you typically see in a pumpkin seasonal, and the extra carbo made for a harsher mouthfeel, but it was in tune with the dramatic spice flavor.
The brewers at
Lakefront use real pumpkin mash and riff on a recipe that Thomas
Jefferson used
to home-brew pumpkin beer at Monticello.
Deep and smooth while not being too thick, this lager was a slice of
pumpkin
heaven.
The Blue Moon may have lost the battle for most righteous fall brew, but it fought a good fight. Rather than tasting like pumpkin pie, it had more of a raw pumpkin flavor. If you're not a fan of sweet or spicy brew, this is the pumpkin beer for you.
It was highly quaffable (I went through two bottles before I got the pumpkin cleaned out) and would go really well with sweet potato or red meat dishes. It had some allspice, clove and nutmeg flavors, but it really tasted more like it came straight from the ol' pumpkin patch rather than from a pie tin.
As for the best pumpkin beer out there period, check out Shipyard Pumpkinhead ale out of Portland, Maine. It was sold out at all the stores I went to in Denver, but it is everything you love about fall in a bottle. Bring a sixer of that or Lakefront Pumpkin lager to the next Halloween shindig you attend and you will be the star of the party.
Especially if you pair the beer with the aforementioned Jack-O-Lantern themed condoms.
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