The Ultimate Pumpkin Beer Guide

Dashes of allspice and organic brown sugar give this Delaware-brewed pumpkin ale a caramel-sweet edge.

Remember what we said about pumpkin beers being a love-'em-or-hate-'em sort of thing? No truer words can describe Pumking, a New York brew that's big on alcohol (8.6 percent ABV, or alcohol by volume) and a cloying sweetness that attracts some, disgusts others.

Brooklyn Brewery's effort in this category is an example of restraint. Neither the spice nor sweetness is overpowering, letting the hops, malts, and natural pumpkin earthiness take over.

This smells like a slice of pumpkin pie, thanks to the generous cinnamon spicing from this Maine brewery. But the wheat-based Pumpkinhead is also rather bland, without much pumpkin character in the flavor.

This beer, which claims to be "America's Original" pumpkin ale, has a fairly mild flavor that makes it a good entry point for the style.

A new offshoot of Anheuser-Busch InBev's Shock Top brand, Pumpkin Wheat begins with the original Shock Top's Belgian-style, wheat-beer base and finishes with the unmistakable pumpkin-pie trio of cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg.

MillerCoors's pumpkin version of its wildly popular Blue Moon brand is pretty to look at — it has a handsome label and liquid that's a beautiful fall-amber hue. But that's about as far as my compliments can really go. The flavor is rather watery and devoid of much pumpkin oomph.

Eleven pounds of pumpkin flesh per barrel and a touch of ginger and smoked malt make the Boston Beer Co.'s Harvest Pumpkin one of the more interesting takes on the style.

The St. Louis brewery wanted over-the-top, in-your-face flavors when it rolled out its first pumpkin beer in 2006. Since then, loyal followers have looked forward to its annual release, drinking up plenty of the 8-percent-ABV brew as well as putting some away in their beer cellars to let the spice and pumpkin flavors mellow with age.

Cranberries and wood aging lend a tart kick to this new pumpkin collaboration from Washington's Elysian and Colorado's New Belgium brewing companies.

You want irony? For the first four years it existed, Michigan's Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales didn't brew a pumpkin beer. That changed with the release of La Parcela in 2008. Brewed with cocoa nibs and aged in wood, it has deeply funky flavors characteristic of Jolly Pumpkin's beers — with just a hint of pumpkin.

When a brewery makes almost a dozen beer styles, it's hard to pick the best, but The Great Pumpkin, an imperial pumpkin ale, is a major contender. Roasted pumpkin seeds add a nutty component to the brew's heady pumpkin and spice flavors.

Another imperial big boy, Tampa's Cigar City Good Gourd clocks in at 8.5 percent ABV. Its exotic spices — Jamaican allspice, Zanzibar cloves, and Ceylon cinnamon — give some globalist flair to the American style.

Lots of bready malts and considerable spicing (with cardamom thrown into the mix) make this excellent Pennsylvania brew taste like liquid pumpkin-pie crust. In a good way: First-time pumpkin-ale imbibers may find the flavors too bold, but aficionados will appreciate the complex spice, dry finish, and warming alcohol content (8 percent ABV).

Cinnamon-spiked pumpkin puree is the dominant flavor in this imperial pumpkin beer from Hoppin' Frog Brewery in Akron, Ohio. Frog's Hollow comes in 22-ounce bottles: just enough to share with a friend.

New Hampshire's Smuttynose Brewing Co. makes one of the most balanced pumpkin beers you'll find. Flavors of biscuity malts, pie spices, real pumpkins, and even some hoppy bitterness all mingle together nicely.

Another highly balanced example of the style, Pumple Drumkin from Nantucket's Cisco Brewers tastes more like a beer that happens to taste like pumpkins than a "pumpkin beer." Familiar pumpkin-pie flavors are there, but neither spice nor sweetness overwhelms the palate.

I know people who swear by mixing one part pumpkin ale and one part stout. Massachusetts's Cape Ann Brewing Co. does exactly that for you in its bottle of Fisherman's Pumpkin Stout, a dark, roasty brew with a pleasant pumpkin finish.

The brand-new fall seasonal from Brooklyn's Sixpoint Craft Ales is brewed with pumpkin, ginger, and other flavors, and — in a twist on the typical, unhoppy pumpkin style — a whole bunch of fresh Citra hops recently harvested from the West Coast.

This newly released ale was brewed with pumpkins and spices, then aged in oak barrels for six months, which should impart a vanilla creaminess. The cheeky 10.31-percent ABV is a play on Halloween. If you want to score a 750-ml bottle by then, act fast: Salt Lake City's Uinta Brewing Co. only made about 10,000.