Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Not winning a gold for pumpkin beer, but...
A disrespected seasonal style redeems itself
Great label artwork as usual, and a beer as brown as the bottle it comes in.
Pumpkin season comes earlier every year. Ballast Point released its seasonal Pumpkin Down in the middle of August, and I was not ready. I've never been enthusiastic about the pumpkin-spiced beverage trend, and its appearance during a heat-wave-laden summer ranked tantamount to "Jingle Bells" in October — too soon.
I know people love this stuff — Pumpkin Beer even has its own category at the Great American Beer Festival. But I feel sort of vindicated that, of the 92 categories in competition, Pumpkin Beer is the only one judges declined to award a gold medal in 2015. Silver and bronze medals were given, but not gold, per the following rule: "If judges believe that no beer in the category meets the quality and style-accuracy criteria, they may elect not to award a medal. Judges may award a beer with a silver or bronze medal and yet not award a gold medal."
I don't know if that should be a lesson or challenge to brewers thinking about brewing with pumpkin and holiday spices. It seems like the gauntlet's been thrown down for somebody to come up with a beer that could be deemed world class by certified beer judges. So it's not just me.
But here the equinox came and went, and my feelings must have mellowed because I had positive experiences tasting both Coronado Brewing's Punk'In Drublic imperial pumpkin ale, and Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale. These got me thinking, if anyone could come up with a good use of pumpkin, it would be Ballast Point. So I gave Pumpkin Down a chance.
It's a flavored take on Piper Down, Ballast Point's Scottish Ale, a dark-brown beer with sweet and malty flavors. I might be projecting, but the pumpkin version seems to have more of an orange hue. It smells sweet, like dark fruit, pumpkin, and allspice.
It drinks wet, almost refreshing, with a roasted caramel base and rich prune notes to complement the spiced pumpkin. A light acidic bite cuts the sweetness a touch and lingers in the aftertaste, leading me to think this would be an outstanding choice to pair with chili.
Which is probably a safe bet with many pumpkin beers. I think 12 ounces made a perfect serving size for one of these, though I can't say I'd want two in a row. Either way, I must be turned around on the concept. I guess it would be great to see someone step up to the plate and grab gold in the category next year. But I'll go on the record right now as saying: the world's not ready for a Pumpkin Sculpin.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Not winning a gold for pumpkin beer, but...
A disrespected seasonal style redeems itself
Not winning a gold for pumpkin beer, but...
A disrespected seasonal style redeems itself
Great label artwork as usual, and a beer as brown as the bottle it comes in.
Pumpkin season comes earlier every year. Ballast Point released its seasonal Pumpkin Down in the middle of August, and I was not ready. I've never been enthusiastic about the pumpkin-spiced beverage trend, and its appearance during a heat-wave-laden summer ranked tantamount to "Jingle Bells" in October — too soon.
I know people love this stuff — Pumpkin Beer even has its own category at the Great American Beer Festival. But I feel sort of vindicated that, of the 92 categories in competition, Pumpkin Beer is the only one judges declined to award a gold medal in 2015. Silver and bronze medals were given, but not gold, per the following rule: "If judges believe that no beer in the category meets the quality and style-accuracy criteria, they may elect not to award a medal. Judges may award a beer with a silver or bronze medal and yet not award a gold medal."
I don't know if that should be a lesson or challenge to brewers thinking about brewing with pumpkin and holiday spices. It seems like the gauntlet's been thrown down for somebody to come up with a beer that could be deemed world class by certified beer judges. So it's not just me.
But here the equinox came and went, and my feelings must have mellowed because I had positive experiences tasting both Coronado Brewing's Punk'In Drublic imperial pumpkin ale, and Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale. These got me thinking, if anyone could come up with a good use of pumpkin, it would be Ballast Point. So I gave Pumpkin Down a chance.
It's a flavored take on Piper Down, Ballast Point's Scottish Ale, a dark-brown beer with sweet and malty flavors. I might be projecting, but the pumpkin version seems to have more of an orange hue. It smells sweet, like dark fruit, pumpkin, and allspice.
It drinks wet, almost refreshing, with a roasted caramel base and rich prune notes to complement the spiced pumpkin. A light acidic bite cuts the sweetness a touch and lingers in the aftertaste, leading me to think this would be an outstanding choice to pair with chili.
Which is probably a safe bet with many pumpkin beers. I think 12 ounces made a perfect serving size for one of these, though I can't say I'd want two in a row. Either way, I must be turned around on the concept. I guess it would be great to see someone step up to the plate and grab gold in the category next year. But I'll go on the record right now as saying: the world's not ready for a Pumpkin Sculpin.
Comments