Organic Pumpkin vs. Pumpkineater

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Last stop before finals — Howe Sound vs. Nelson

Last stop before finals — Howe Sound vs. Nelson

It’s the semifinal round of Bad Rider’s Pumpkindrome. So far, Phillip’s Crooked Tooth and Red Racer Spiced Pumpkin Ale are headed to our three-way finale showdown. Which brew will be the last to join?

The Challengers: Howe Sound Brewing Co.’s Pumpkineater vs. Nelson Brewing Co.’s Organic Pumpkin Ale

The Shock Top versus Red Racer debate came down to craft versus commerciality. Today’s Pumpkindrome semi-final, on the other hand, leaves us pondering a different question.

What matters more in pumpkin spice beer — The spice? Or the pumpkin?

There’s no denying Nelson’s pumpkin is some of the best flavour in the entire bracket, with a just-plucked-from-the-patch freshness. But, the spice in this organic ale is a one-note, almost chemical cinnamon.

Pumpkineater’s pumpkin, meanwhile, is the least interesting thing about it. As I mentioned in round one, the notes of anise, ginger, clove and spices other brewers don’t take the risk on gives this ale a complexity that stays past the first sip, though they also make the squash flavours in the beer harder to locate.

While I’ve tended to defer to beers that prioritize our round, orange friends — it’s not called the Pumpkindrome for nothing — this time around I have to go the other way in my pick.

Pumpkineater was a fan favourite well before the pumpkin trend got off the ground in Canada, and it’s easy to see why it’s held its own among the upstart brews and challengers to the throne. Howe Sound simply makes a more interesting beer, one that held my attention beyond the first glass.

Can it go all the way to number one? You’ll find out soon enough…

Doc’s Draft – Pumpkin Hard Apple Cider

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Doc's Draft Pumpkin Hard Apple Cider

Doc’s Draft Pumpkin Hard Apple Cider

I found one more pumpkin cider! Okay, now that Halloween is over I know everyone’s on to peppermint everything, but I couldn’t resist sneaking in one more. Besides, the Pumpkindrome isn’t over so we’re not done with pumpkin season here at Bad Rider anyway.

Doc’s Draft is a production of Warwick Valley Winery in NY, and the bottle copy mentions roasted pumpkin, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and nutmeg.

I do actually get some pumpkin in the aroma, along with the spices — mainly the cinnamon and ginger.

A little mustiness comes out in the flavor, which is acidic and medium-dry. The pumpkin gets rather drowned out by the tartness, acidity and spices, but it’s still there in the background.

It’s slightly fizzy and a clear light yellow, with a 6% ABV. As ciders go, it’s kind of strange, but neither terrible nor great. I wouldn’t pass up a really good cider in favor of this one, but if you’d like to give it a try it’s not the worst choice you could make when it comes to pumpkin cider. I know, I know, damned with faint praise, etc.

It is, at least, more likely that East Coast folks will be able to find this one than many of the other ciders I’ve reviewed — in fact, Warwick Valley’s locator site only lists locations in New England. So give it a try!

Red Racer vs. Shock Top

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Redemption round (for me, I mean) — Red Racer vs. Shock Top

Redemption round (for me, I mean) — Red Racer vs. Shock Top

It’s the semifinals of Bad Rider’s pumpkin battle, and it’s time to explain the rules for our next section.

Since I never did track down the right number of beers for an even bracket (Kamloops was experiencing some weird beer stockage issues for much of early October, but that’s another, much whinier post), we’re headed into round two with five beers on the block.

Thus, I’ve decided my favourite of the competition thus far gets a bye.

So congratulations Phillip’s Crooked Tooth! You move to round three. Phillips was our first week winner and impressed me with its balanced mix of spices and pumpkin. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a tough one to beat when we reach final three.

As to the rest of our brews, best wishes and spices.

The Challengers: Shock Top Pumpkin and Red Racer’s Spiced Pumpkin Ale 
(Click through to see the original matchups that brought these two to our semifinals.)

I’ll be honest, this was over in a sip.

As I mentioned last time, Shock Top is not my bag. Too thin, too chemical, way too sweet, it’s here in Round Two by the virtue of another beer’s failure.

If you’re in the mood for a pumpkin beer and you have the choice between these two contenders? For the love of Good and beer, pick Red Racer.

The craft option is only medium-sweet with a darker, more caramel edge to its sugar. It’s mild on the spices, as is Shock Top, and the pumpkin is a little one-dimensional compared to some beers in its class, but it’s a thoroughly solid pumpkin offering. I’d recommend it on mouthfeel alone, over Shock Top.

Will it stand up to our other two finalists? That’s a question that’ll have to wait for the finals.

Boonville – Bite Hard

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Glass of Boonville Bite Hard cider & small Portal turret bot

Bonus Portal turret since I don’t have a bottle or can to show off.

Boonville’s Bite Hard made a brief appearance in my Cider Summit roundup post, but now that it’s shown up on tap at my favorite liquor store’s growler station I’ve been able to write a proper full review of it.

Bite Hard is a clear, light yellow, with a light aroma, fresh and tart. It lives up to its name in flavor with an immediate snap of tartness and acidity — this is definitely a cider with personality.

It’s very dry, and a little bitterness comes forward after the initial bite, fading without much in the way of aftertaste. There’s some body to it, but overall I wouldn’t describe it as terribly complex — not that it’s bad, just that it’s straightforward.

It’s a good palate-clearing cider, to have with something rich and heavy that will benefit from a contrast with Bite Hard’s crisp tartness and acidity instead of being overwhelmed by it.

Boonville is located in California, and their locator page only lists places in CA and MI to find their cider, so good luck searching to those of us in the Pacific Northwest I guess. If you spot it, do give it a try!

Steamworks vs. Shock Top

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The final week of round one — Shock Top vs. Steamworks

This October Bad Rider’s beer section is pitting gourd against gourd in a battle to determine which B.C. beer is king of the pumpkin patch. Welcome to Pumpkindrome.

For the final week of Round One, our challengers are: Steamworks Pumpkin (6.5 per cent ABV, 650mL)  vs. Shock Top Pumpkin Wheat (5.2 per cent ABV, 12-pack or seasonal mingler)

 

Well, this is embarrassing.

If the bracket had ended up differently, this wouldn’t be happening. Were our one big-box, conglomerate owned, only-in-there-as-a-control beer up against Parallel 49 or Nelson or Howe Sound or even Fernie, I wouldn’t have to do this. (Were it up against Prohibition, maybe. Not every craft beer is blameless.)

In case you haven’t guessed, Riders, what I’m saying is Shock Top Pumpkin is headed to round two.

Here’s why:

The thing to understand is this was Steamworks’ round to lose. Shock Top is high sweet, not much spice, but a pronounced and fairly realistic pumpkin taste. It’s not a bad beer, but every flavoured Shock Top offering makes me feel like I’m drinking alcopop and this is no exception. The sweetness is more pronounced, with a refined-white-sugar flavour. The mouthfeel is thinner. The flavours are more laboratory-crafted.

All Steamworks had to do to triumph was give me some pumpkin and spice flavours, any of them, and I’d take its natural sweetness and smoother feel any day of the week.

Instead, what I got is a beer that I would never have expected from that brewery.

Typically, Steamworks beers are idiosyncratic. Lots of bold notes. Sometimes (oftentimes) too many bold notes for my tastes. If anything, I would have expected something too assertive. But this beer suffers from the same problem as many of the challengers — neither spice not pumpkin makes the appearance one expects.

There is something there, a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg on the back of the sip. But it’s not enough to impress, and certainly not enough for round two.

Anyway, if you need me I’m gonna crawl into a hole now and hide my snobby, snobby shame.

D’s Wicked Cider – Baked Apple

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D's Baked Apple Cider

D’s Baked Apple Cider

Like Angry Orchard’s Strawman, D’s Baked Apple isn’t a seasonal offering, but thematically it fits well enough.

D’s is a small outfit in eastern Washington, an area better known for its wines than its ciders — though, come to think of it, it’s also known for apple production, so I’m a little surprised I haven’t heard about a cidery out that way before now.

In color, Baked Apple cider is cloudy and amber like real non-alcoholic cider (not the fake rebranded juice crap), and there’s a sort of cinnamon-y, roasted aroma to it. Honest to goodness like baked spiced apples.

It’s quite sweet, but there’s also vanilla and a little bit of a pie crust sort of taste to it.

To be honest, the first time I tried this cider I wasn’t wild about it, but coming back to it after a couple of months I appreciate it more for doing exactly what it claims to. I mean, it’s named “Baked Apple” and it really does taste like baked apples.

If that sounds like something you’d be into, look for some in a store near you! No locator available but you can check out their website here.

Red Racer vs. Jumpin Jack

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Week Four: Red Racer vs. Tree Brewing

This October Bad Rider’s beer section is pitting gourd against gourd in a battle to determine which B.C. beer is king of the pumpkin patch. Welcome to Pumpkindrome.

The challengers: Tree Brewing Co. Jumpin’ Jack India Pumpkin Ale (6.5 per cent ABV, 650mL) vs Red Racer’s Spiced Pumpkin Ale (5 per cent ABV, 650mL)

 

One of the more frustrating aspects of Pumpkindrome is that I feel like I’m penalizing innovation. On the weekend, it was Parallel 49’s chocolate and pumpkin porter failing to make the cut. This week, I’m having similar struggles with Tree Brewing’s marriage of IPA and pumpkin.

Here’s the problem, I think: pumpkin is not a particularly bold flavour. Add something strong, like IPA-appropriate concentrations of hops or chocolate, and you mask it. If you’re not amping up the spices to compensate, it doesn’t take much to lose any sense of your original purpose.

Jumping Jack is a darn bold IPA, too. While I’ve somewhat come around on my no-way-IPA stance lately, thanks to some delicious brews (most notably Gigantic Brewing’s offering out of Portland), this is not my kind of IPA. Forget nuance, this is all hops — and hops in a concentration that makes me think soap, not beer. If there’s any pumpkin here, I can’t find it. Probably because I’m too busy wincing.

Red Racer’s take on pumpkin beer, meanwhile, is as textbook as you could find, from its pumpkin pie smell to its spice blend. Here, as with other contenders, it’s mainly a cinnamon effort, though there’s a sense of ginger and nutmeg in the blend as well. I’d call it mid-sweet, but it’s really pushing that definition. And while the pumpkin isn’t as well-developed as I’d like, it’s definitely there.

It’s a perfectly good beer. Does exactly what it says on the label. And yet, I feel a bit bad that once again, I can’t give the risk-taker a bump. I’d love to taste a beer that marries IPA’s assertive hops with the pumpkin’s interesting, savoury freshness. Tree’s ain’t it.

Red Racer’s onto round two.

Woodchuck – Fall Harvest

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Woodchuck Fall Harvest

Woodchuck Fall Harvest

With their fall seasonal release, Woodchuck is going not for pumpkin pie but for apple pie, and not for an explosion of spices but for something sweet and evocative of particular flavors without being overpowering (Seattle Cider I’m looking at you).

It’s a clear, dark amber and only 5% ABV, with a mild and sweet aroma of nutmeg and cinnamon. The taste is (unsurprisingly) also quite sweet, with smooth vanilla and a little apple tartness.

All in all, a respectable entry into the fall seasonal category. Reminds me a little of the Neigel Pearfect Pie I tried at the Seattle Cider Summit, but less aggressively pie-tastic than I recall that one being.

Every cider I’ve had from Woodchuck has been on the sweeter side, but not so much that I feel bad recommending the ones I’ve liked to other people who like sweet ciders. Sometimes I’m not a fan of their flavor choices (like, surprisingly, the winter seasonal), but overall I trust them to deliver pretty solid commercial stuff.

Find yourself some Woodchuck here!

Lost Souls vs. Organic Pumpkin

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Week Three: Parallel 49 vs. Nelson Brewing

Week Three: Parallel 49 vs. Nelson Brewing

This October Bad Rider’s beer section is pitting gourd against gourd in a battle to determine which B.C. beer is king of the pumpkin patch. Welcome to Pumpkindrome.

The challengers: Parallel 49’s Lost Souls Chocolate Pumpkin Porter (6.5 per cent ABV, 650mL) vs. Nelson Brewing Co.’s Organic Pumpkin Ale (5 per cent ABV, 650mL)

 

They both have pumpkin in their names, but today’s Pumpkindrome challengers couldn’t be less alike if I’d tried, instead of leaving this bracket to random chance. And, more than any match up so far, this week’s decision is coming down to personal preference and slightly twisty logic.

Parallel 49’s Lost Souls is on the low end of sweet, with a smooth, mostly chocolate taste — milk-chocolate, not dark. The chocolate’s balanced out with the sort of malty notes you’d expect from a beer of this style, and overall it’s a very cohesive drink. With a short of espresso dropped into your pint, you could drink this at brunch with absolutely no shame.

Nelson’s organic pumpkin brew is much more in the traditional line of things. The pumpkin is quite good here, very fresh and just a little vegetal. It feels like it could have been picked from the patch this morning. The spice blend on the other hand…

Do you remember those little red cinnamon hearts from Valentine’s Days past? This beer doesn’t seem to have the spice balance of the other comers so far. It’s all cinnamon, and when combined with the beer’s moderate sweetness you end up with a finish that’s uncomfortably bulk bin candy.

But, you ask, what about the pumpkin in Parallel 49’s beer?

That’s where the issue comes in, dear drinkers. I couldn’t taste any. If I’m being generous, I thought there were some hints of cinnamon rounding out the chocolate. You could see this more in the line of a chocolate spice bread — delicious, but unlikely to make pumpkin much of a star.

So while I think it’s well composed, very drinkable, and less discernibly flawed, I don’t think I can give Lost Souls the win. If I’d made it my only pumpkin purchase of the year, I’d be pretty disappointed, good as it is.

Nelson’s uneven, but you can’t deny it’s pumpkin. It moves on to round two.

[A note — last year Nelson brewed my favourite pumpkin ale, and I don’t remember this cinnamon issue at all. It could be uneven brewing, or my palate’s developed in the last 12 months, but I think I’ll be revisiting this bottle next fall out of curiosity.]

Ace – Pumpkin Cider

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Ace Pumpkin Cider

Don’t do it, kids.

Hailing from California, Ace is not the local-est of local operations, but in my quest to bring you comprehensive coverage of pumpkin ciders I’m allowing it.

Buuuuuut I’m allowing it for one specific reason: to bring you a warning that it’s bad.

To start off with: it smells bad. Yes, there are spices there, and even some pumpkin. There’s also a smell that I most strongly associate with Nickelodeon Gak — that kind of sharp, chemical, plastic smell.

The taste never really makes up for the smell, nor does it particularly distinguish itself. It’s almost anticlimactic: sugary and pretty stock apple-juice with a side of pumpkin pie spices.

Don’t look for some Ace Pumpkin cider of your own. Try some Crispin Steel Town instead – while not strictly speaking a seasonal cider, given the competition it’s turning out to be one of the better ciders I’ve tried this fall.