Welcome to the final round of the Epic 2024 Pumpkin Beer Battle!!
You can see the contenders and results of Round 3, Here. This will be the final round before the knock-out stages where the top scorers of the pool (Mug?) stages go head to head for the coveted title of Pumpkin (beer) King
If you haven’t been following from the start, the weather has (finally) started to lean more toward the cooler temperatures – despite a two week stretch where the temps were in the high eighties – and I decided the time had come to pit the various offerings of Pumpkin Beer available against one another to see which would come out on top. There have been three rounds so far, and this is the final round of the 2024 Epic Pumpkin Beer battle where I pit every offering from every brewery I can find…
Sidebar: “That I can Find” means what’s available in the stores in my area. Depending on where you are, you might have something that doesn’t appear here, and it’s really hard to get beer shipped into the state from outside, let alone over a national border.
…against each other until – If I’ve planned this right – we reach the quarter finals, semi finals, and Ultimately the Final round on October 27th (Which is a Sunday. Time wasn’t working with me on this one).
Another sidebar: I’m going to be rating these entries on a scale of 1 to 10 based on very exacting criteria, like, how well I enjoy it, and how close it approaches the pinnacle of achievement: Pumpkin Pie in a bottle or can.
Are you ready to Rumble???
Here – in no particular order – are the Round 4 Competitors!
Short’s Brewing Pumpkin Crusha (6.3 APV, 15 IBU)
This is a new one on me, and I was pretty pleased because I’m a fan of Short’s in general – despite them tending to discontinue a brew just after I find it and really enjoy it. It hit the stores late in my neck of the woods – which might have been a good call since they avoided the wave of Pumpkin beer hitting the market all at once.
This beer had the mouthfeel of a stout (with the volume turned down a bit), with all the right notes of pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg. A true Autumn beer.
Overall, this was a tasty drink. A solid entry.
Score: 8/10
OddSide Stout Pumpkin (7.5 APV, Was unable to find any IBU info from the brewer)
This was a bit of a surprise although, in hindsight, it probably shouldn’t have been. Despite this being a stout, there was a clear hoppy taste to it, which is unusual for a stout. The reason why it shouldn’t have been a surprise is that if you look on the tin – directly beneath the name “OddSide” you can clearly see hops in the artwork.
So, while I shouldn’t have been surprised, the assertiveness of the hops did distract me a bit. This wasn’t a bad beer, but I do think it tried to do too much, and the hops/stout/Pumpkin/spices tripped each other up as they crossed my taste buds.
It might have scored higher if it hadn’t followed up the Short’s offering, or if it had followed up the sour ales from previous rounds. Like I said, not a bad beer, and I might return to it to explore the hoppy-stout elements.
Score: 6.5/10
And there you have it! An exciting Final Round with surprises aplenty! Next week the kid gloves are coming off, as we enter the knockout stages. During the week, I’ll post the results from the pool stages so, going into October, we’ll know which brews will face off against the others to discover which Beer reigns over the Pumpkin patch!
Stay tuned…
Thanks for reading. Be safe out there. Be Excellent to Each other – and yourself.
I’ll see you on Thursday.
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