Pumpkin Ale's and One Lager

I should have posted this right after it happened so that the tastes and smells of the beer would be fresh in my mind but I didn't and so they are not. We had a themed beer night before Halloween where we tried four different pumpkin beers. I had never tried pumpkin beer but I heard it tasted like a pumpkin pie. I've wanted to do a themed beer night before and since I didn't want to get one crappy pumpkin beer and then think they all tasted like that we tried a whole bunch.

We tried Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale, Lakefront Pumpkin Lager, Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale, and Dogfish Head Punkin Ale.

It's hard to remember the exact tastes of the beer because I didn't write anything down. I was not drinking with a bunch a beer geeks just regular people that would have made fun of me and it probably would have taken away some of the fun for them. Anywho from what I can remember Buffalo Bill's and Lakefronts were the most mellow tasting. Both of them had a good pumpkin pie flavor but Buffalo Bill's felt thicker and I prefer it that way. They both had similar pumpkin and spice smells and were certainly the most beer-like. Shipyard is pretty sweet and has a lot of spice flavor. It's got a really thin mouth feel and almost tastes like a graham cracker. It sounds kind of weird but I thought it was really tasty. Shipyard might be the only beer I would buy again out of these four. It was the most unique without being too strong so I could drink more than three without getting sloppy, and it wasn't super pricey.

The first beer we tried was Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale because it's 9% and we paid the most for it and had to justify that by drinking it slowly and savoring the flavor. Also to justify the price I scrutinized this beer the most and so its flavors are the most memorable to me. First off kudos to anyone that can make a 9% beer taste like it's not 9%! It really bugs me when someone tells me to try a beer because its 8-9%+ ABV and then it tastes like someone poured a shot of vodka or whiskey into a perfectly good beer. That being said you can tell this is 9% after a few sips. One thing I can remember most is that it smelled like there is brett in it. I do not know how to describe it any other way. This ale is spiced and so it has a lot of cinnomon and clove smells and maybe I was smelling some of that and interpreting that as brett. It has a creamy mouthfeel and when you taste the pumpkin along with that it is really good. It still has the taste of beer the whole time and doesn't taste like you are drinking some novelty Jone's soda soft drink. I liked it a lot, but might not buy it again. On the other hand themed beer nights kick ass and I will do that again for sure!