A Quest for the Great Pumpkin Beer
The Beers:
Each Beer was sampled in relative silence, and after all had been tried we compared notes on each.

Smuttynose
The first Beer sampled was Smuttynose. This beer had the highest average score for smell but garnered the lowest overall score. Common complaints were that it was bad/cheap beer and had a bitter/acrid taste. It was also a bit sweet and did get a positive review from Kirsten who felt it was quite yummy and pumpkin-pie like. Unfortunately, bitter and shitty seemed to be the general opinion.



Post Road
Next up was Post Rd. This beer had the highest score for "Beerishness" and the lowest for "Pumkinosity". I likened it to Newcastle, but the general consensus was that it was a bit weak (I called it smooth) and tasted like a campfire or a tree. It was my personal favorite, even though I'm a pumpkin beer fan and many felt it wasn't pumkininny enough. It did have a cinnamon flavor that was noticed by multiple people.



Buffalo Bill's
Buffalo Bill had the third beer. Internet research shows this to be the pumpkin-beer that revived pumkin-beer-making recently, being the first brewery the begin brewing it in recent history. Unfortunately I had tried some before the tasting and found it unpleasant with a hint of a plastic taste. When I drank it in the tasting, I recognized the taste immediately and knew I didn't like it. Others, however, felt much differently. It received the highest "Pumkinosity" rating and the lowest "Beerishness" and was described to have hints of other fruit (apple, orange) and bubblegum. Many appreciated it's flavor, but Brian had a bonus memory triggered by the taste, a memory of him at 8 years old puking in the center of his bed.



Blue Moon
Fourth was Blue Moon, a beer that Rob and Adam maligned based on their previous experience drinking it. It was surprising then, that they each rated it the highest overall and indeed it averaged the highest in most of the taste categories. It seemed to have a balanced pumpkin and beer taste and the most overall pleasing taste experience though it was compared to rotting fruit on more than one occassion and Kim felt it was too sweet.


Pumpkin Patch

Lastly was Pumpkin Patch, which scored fairly well overall (2nd best overall score) but had some of the strangest associated flavors. People described it as minty, creamy, smokey and said it tasted like syrup, sausage, or old/cheap-weed. It also scored highest in "Slugability", which coupled with the syrup-and-sausage flavors makes it a good compliment to a breakfast-themed-college-binge-drinking-pumpkin-party.
Please continue on to Part 5: Conclusions



Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Process and Procedures
Part 3: Tasting Parameters
Part 4: Results by Beer
Part 5: Conclusions