Last year was my first for sampling pumpkin beer and I was able to find some good ones, most of them on a trip to Orlando in late September.  My favorite from last year was Shipyard’s Smashed Pumpkin and honorable mention went to Weyerbacher’s Imperial Pumpkin Ale.  I wasn’t too fond of Southern Tier’s Pumking, a very highly respected and sought after pumpkin ale.  Here’s the ranked list from last year:

1. Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin
2. Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale
3. Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale
4. Southern Tier Pumking
5. Wasatch Pumpkin Ale

This year, I’ve collected a new sampling and here’s the ranked  list with some tasting notes (the top 3 are real winners):

1. Uinta Oak Jacked Imperial Pumpkin Ale – mild spice, bold pumpkin flavor with a great oak aged flavor that really enhances the flavor… like an oak-ageChimay blue with pumpkin
2. Saint Arnold Pumpkinator – perfect balance of pumpkin and spice in a flavorful dark ale… a close second place
3. Epic Fermentation Without Representation – great balance of pumpkin and spice without overpowering the beer flavor… this is what Pumking should be and still a close third
4. Samuel Adam’s Fat Jack – a heavy ale with bold spicy pumpkin flavor and great balance
5. Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin – nice balance of pumpkin and spice in a flavorful pale ale
6. Harpoon Imperial Pumpkin – great pumpkin flavor with plenty of spice… works well in a stout
7. Southern Tier Warlock – stout ale with roasted malt, mild pumpkin, lots of spice and notes of coffee and cocoa… aftertaste is like burnt pumpkin pie
8. Rogue Pumpkin Ale – nice pumpkin flavor with hardly any spice… pretty good
9. Grand Canyon Pumpkin Springs Porter – not enough pumpkin flavor or spice, but a good porter
10. Dogfish Head Punkin Ale – mild pumpkin, mild spice, mild roasted malt flavor, mild bitterness… result is a fairly boring beer