From Pumpkin To Marzen, And All Points Between

I love writing about beer but also love reading what others have discovered along the way. Pumpkin beer is quite a discovery for many,  a new world style to be sure, but other than that, there are no recipe parameters. Pumpkin beer is each brewery’s interpretation, and all are quite different. So the idea of “the best” is beside the point. The modern revival of this colonial style of ale, begins with Buffalo Bill’s Original Pumpkin Ale, a rather tame recipe now, but was considered to be audaciously bold, in those micro-brewery years.
Take  for example, Southern Tier’s PUMKING, a massive imperial take that tastes like caramel corn candy in an odd way. A strong (8.6%) ale, its intense flavour disguises this strength.
Samuel Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale is a tasty brew that has grown in popularity over the years. First appearing in brewmaaster collections, it is now released in its own six pack. A very well made pumpkin ale that maintains balance, while keeping the pumpkin flavour in the forefront,
Dogfishhead’s Punkin Ale takes a brown ale approach, where the pumpkin is in the background of a very smooth ale. Delicious from start to finish.
Snuttynose Brewery’s Pumpkin Ale exhibits the brewmaster’s skill in all its glory, producing a recipe that is multi-layered with flavour notes and pleasant carbonation.
Brooklyn Brewery’s Post Road was the first pumpkin ale for me. Strange now, but years ago, people thought it was strange to drink beer made with pumpkins. That first year it was shipped to the midwest, it was closed-out at 8 dollars a case!
But when it comes to pumpkin ales, the one I would choose is Saranac Pumpkin Ale. Now in their 125th year, F. X. Matt Brewing Company uses their brewing expertise to produce what is for myself, the most drinkable pumpkin ale of all.

Here in the miidwest, Oktoberfest got off to an early start, due to some unusually cool weather in August. Marzen is one of my favorite styles of beer and unlike pumpkin ale, there are recipe parameters (although the ingredients can be super-sized, as is the case with Avery Brewing’s The Kaiser, another imperial version). But the difference between American Oktoberfest and original Oktoberfest, is I think mainly the house yeast used. There is a floral note in Hacker-Pschorr Original Oktoberfest that is unmistakably German. Here in Cincinnati, Samuel Adams Octoberfest has a very delicious presence in local festivities, but for me, the official beer for Cincinnati Oktoberfest should be Hudepohl Oktoberfest Bier. A personal favorite, now being brewed in Cincinnati.

The arrival of a new fall seasonal from the hop-centric folks at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company is worth checking out. Flipside Red IPA  proves that the hop road of discovery is never ending.  Enjoy.

When Cold Beer Counts

There is a famous scene in the John Cassavettes movie Gloria where Gena Rowlands, walks into a bar in the morning hours and asks for a beer. “What kind?” the bartender asks. Which Gloria (Ms. Rowlands) replies: “Cold.”
I didn’t fully appreciate this until after 16 days of plus 90 degree temperatures. In such a climate, “cold” is the most important attribute.  In the hot summer sun, beer in a can seems quite suitable, so I have to laugh when the so-called craft brewing world announces the craft can revolution. Which I gather provides an excuse to sell their crafted creations in aluminum, dispensing with the notion that beer is always better in glass bottles.
There is of course resistance to that notion among those taught that glass was the last word in beer packaging. Brown glass bottles has always been a selling point with Samuel Adams, who so far have resisted the craft can revolution. A movement that now includes Avery, Brooklyn, Abita, and many others.
This is also where the marketing distinctions become a bit of a blur. In fact the term craft beer seems a useless designation, unless it simply means more expensive beer ($18 for a six-pack of cans?).  And now the game is afoot, to convince all those glass bottle drinkers, that beer in a can can be just as good, after all those years of complaining about ‘metallic taste’.
It would be interesting to have a blind taste test to determine if you can actually taste the difference. Much packaging depends on psychology. How else can it be explained why so much time and resources is devoted to finding the right button to push? There is a dirt into gold aspect to this. Back in the 1980’s, the Mexican migrant worker cooler known as Corona became the sought after yuppie drink of choice, knocking off Heineken from its throne as the Number 1, U.S. imported beer.
This marketing coup was upstaged by another when Stella Artois, makers of a Belgian working class lager convinced the world, or at least the part that had money to spend, that Stella is a fine representative of “cinema, cuisine and culture”.
It should also be noted that Heineken, Stella Artois, and Corona are all available in bottles and cans. International branding doesn’t want to miss an opportunity. The redesign of AB Inbev’s Budweiser logo is a good case in point. Heineken pull tabs on their cans are green, Budweiser’s are red.  Obviously, package design is enormously important, although the vast majority of consumers hardly even consider it. Marketing beer at this scale very often means promoting an imaginary lifestyle. Its not just beer, you might say, but a way of life.