Epic 2012 Pumpkin Beer Review

This year I went a little crazy for the pumpkin beer. After getting my first exposure last year with a couple different choices that surprised the heck out of me, this year - as you can see - my entire fall beer drinking plans seemed to rotate around pumpkin beers of all kinds.

Below is my impression of what I tried. This is in no way an exhaustive list of even what is available in Portland let alone all over. I included my initial notes from my Untappd check-ins, as well as a few follow-ups.

Rogue Ales - Pumpkin Patch Ale
Newport, OR - 5.6% ABV

Very good flavors - Pumking-esque - with a little more hoppiness. Nice nose - banana along with pumpkin pie spices. Bonus points for a pumpkin-colored bottle.

4 Stars

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Southern Tier Brewing - Pumking
Lakewood, NY - 8.6% ABV

Still the king - need to have side by side with Stingy Jack. Great nose, pleasant sweetness followed by great spice. Use part of one bottle to make a fantastic beef and squash stew.

5 Stars

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Dogfish Head - Punkin Ale
Milton, DE - 7.0% ABV

Lightly pumpkin on the nose, lots of flavor. Pleasant bitterness follows. Solid pumpkin ale. Not sure if the recipe changed a bit from 2011, but I remember liking the '11 version much better.

3 Stars

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Laurelwood Brewing - Stingy Jack Pumpkin Ale
Portland, OR - 7.5% ABV

Not much nose, but fantastic flavor. All the pumpkin pie spices plus vanilla. A lot of depth. Had forgotten how good this was last year.

5 Stars

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Elysian Brewing - Dark O' the Moon Pumpkin Stout
Seattle, WA - 6.5% ABV

Very nice pumpkin nose. As a stout this is great - lots of coffee with a tiny dash of pumpkin spice. The combination didn't produce something greater than the parts.

3 Stars

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Uinta Brewing - Punk'n
Salt Lake City, UT - 4.0% ABV

Very nice nose. A little sweet, but otherwise not a ton of flavor. At least it was low in calories.

2 Stars

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Elysian Brewing - Night Owl Pumpkin Ale
Seattle, WA - 5.9% ABV

Similar nose and spices to Pumking, but the flavor is...younger, if that makes sense. Will definitely drink again.

4 Stars

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Elysian Brewing - Blight Pumpkin Ale (12 Beers of the Apocalypse series)
Seattle, WA - 7.4% ABV

Lots of cinnamon on the nose and in the glass. Cloves, vanilla, squash. Very tasty. This is one of those beers that at first shocks with the medley of flavors and you aren't sure if you like it, but the more you drink and even long after it's gone you keep thinking about it. Very unfortunate it was a one-time release.

5  Stars

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Elysian Brewing - Great Pumpkin
Seattle, WA - 8.1% ABV

This was fine. Nothing special. It taste good enough, had a solid balance, a light nose and was generally acceptable. The most average of pumpkin beers.

3  Stars

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Elysian Brewing - Hansel and Gretel Pumpkin Pilsner
Seattle, WA - 4.7% ABV

Overwhelming flavors of sharp, fresh ginger. Really needed some sweetness for balance.

3  Stars

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Shipyard Brewing - Smashed Pumpkin
Portland, ME - 9.0% ABV

Very little nose and nothing on the tongue but burning hot cinnamon. There didn't seem to be much attempt to develop flavors. Didn't finish it, which for the price ($10) was disappointing.

1  Stars

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Oakshire Brewing - Big Black Jack Chocolate Pumpkin Porter
Eugene, OR - 9.0% ABV

Smells like choc/pumpkin bread. Yummy as a porter, but want stronger flavors of the advertised chocolate and pumpkin. If you promise chocolate, I want chocolate.

3 Stars

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Conclusions?

Besides the fact that it took me four months to get through all of these, it was a fun experiment with mostly highs. 

Two major disappointments:

1 - The most expensive beer on this list, the one from Shipyard, was the worst. I have to think that maybe I received a bad bottle because the cost and the reviews indicated it was a quality beer that had a lot of thought put into its development. 

2 - The Pumpkin Patch box from Elysian didn't meet my (admittedly high) expectations. I wanted to love them all, but instead my favorite of the $25 box was the Night Owl, which also comes in six-packs of 12 ounce bottles for less than ten bucks. 

Now the highs.

This fall I plan on buying just three (and multiples of them) from the 2012 list: Rogue's Pumpkin Patch (which in retrospect should have been a five as well), Southern Tier's Pumking and Laurelwood's Stingy Jack. I would absolutely include Elysian's Blight on that list, but since it was from the 12 Beers of Apocalypse series we may never see it again (unless we beg?). It would be fun to try those three side-by-side-by-side to see which I truly think is the best, but that would involve one serious night of drinking for which I am frankly too old. College me could have done it. Twice. 

I also have some plans for using pumpkin beer for something other than just drinking. A couple months back Wifey and I made ice cream with some Kona coffee beans and Deschutes' Abyss stout, which turned out amazing, and I'd like to find a good recipe for integrating a pumpkin beer into an ice cream recipe. I also think a beer float with French vanilla ice cream and Pumking would be amazing. 

Already looking forward to this fall!

Toro Bravo: In Pictures

Two years ago Wifey and I went to dinner at Toro Bravo and experienced one of the best meals of our lives. For some inexplicable reason we had not been back since. Why? I have no idea. We could blame it on the fact you have to get there early to get a table, which is problematic during the week and not helpful on the weekend. We could blame it on the fact you can't make reservations for just two people.

We could, but really, I don't know why. Today we rectified that...and were rewarded with an absolutely fantastic meal. With minimal commentary, here is Toro Bravo in pictures.

Any meal at Toro must start with these - griddle bacon wrapped dates in honey stuffed with an almond. Just two bites each, these are divine, sweet and savory and crunchy all rolled into the perfect mouthful.

We ordered drinks too, a white wine sangria (with blackberries, blueberries, and orange), and a limoncello drink, with cava and Tosca cherries.

The next plate to come was a fresh empanada stuffed with tomato, ham and corn. This came with a side of greens and pickled onions, plus a mayo-based dipping sauce. The empanada also had spinach inside.

Want to see the inside? Well, here you go:

Yeah, it was also awesome. Great flavors, light crust, and the greens provided a nice palate cleanser.

The next dish was grilled corn with cilantro pesto. It came on the cob, cut into thirds.

Not only was it pretty in the initial presentation, but after slicing the corn off the cob it still looked nice.

The crisp, sweet corn worked fantastic with the cilantro pesto. I could eat a mountain of this.

The last small plate was drunken pork and avocado salad. The pork was wrapped in bacon, making it more awesome, and everything about this dish was just right.

The last dish was the biggest, the paella Toro.

Yep, there is all sorts of fun stuff in there: mussels, clams, shrimp, chorizo, braised chicken, rice, tomatoes, peppers, and even lemon slices. Neither of us had ever eaten paella before - again, I have no idea why - but everything in this plate had great flavor, was cooked perfectly, and it just looks so damn pretty.

We ate everything but couldn't finish off the paella - we had to save room for dessert. We each ordered a dessert. The first to come out was caramel panna cotta. The two layers - both of which are made in house - tasted fantastic on their own and phenomenal together. Panna cotta in general is one of our favorites, but this quite possibly could be the best (our waitress said this was her favorite dessert on their menu) in the entire city.

Our other dessert was the molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. We sat at the chef's counter again this time and could see much of the prep work and cooking - which is fascinating - and the chef closest to us leaned over and placed this before us:

Does it look awesome? Oh it was, it sure was. The gooey insides leaked all over the plate when we cracked it open with a fork, mixing with the cake and the vanilla to make taste buds happy. The chef also made a point of telling us we had chosen well and this was his favorite dessert on their menu.

It's not a cheap meal - $72 plus tip - but with the quality of the food, I really don't care. It was that good.

We will absolutely go back....and it will not take us two years to return. That's a promise.

Yes, 90 is Hot - It's Portland

People from all over laugh at us Northwesterners when we start to complain when the Fahrenheit hits 90 degrees. They think we are pansies, that we can't take it.

I was at the The North Face (that just reads weird) store in Portland on Friday afternoon when it was about 93 outside. There was a lady in there visiting town from Iowa and she was making snarky comments to the sales associate about how where she comes from this is no big deal.

That's great - I have no issues with that. The thing is, if I like that kind of weather I'd move to Iowa (okay, you're right, I wouldn't), but I like the weather here, where I'll put up with the rain for a few months for the right to have a milder winter and a milder summer. I'd prefer it to be right about 80; Wifey likes it the mid eighties. We both love the sun and trade winds in Hawaii. (Actually, if you don't like Hawaii I'm pretty sure that makes you the spawn of Satan - not that there is anything wrong with that.)

So yes, when it gets 90 in Portland people will complain, because this is not a climate or a people used to having to deal with consistent 90 degree days. It's like Californians complaining about the rain - people everywhere else will give them a hard time when they comment on rain, but they simply don't get that much, and when they do it's annoying.

Heck, there are a lot of Hawaiians in the Northwest - many of them come to our universities and end up staying because there are more job opportunities here - but they don't complain about the cold. They are just the ones you see bundled up in parkas when it hits 70. Heck, I saw some construction workers wearing sweaters and jeans on that 93-degree day - where they came from that's not hot.

So please, don't complain about Portlanders being a bit put off by extreme heat - we aren't used to it. And yes, for us, 90 is extreme heat. 90 for a week is horrible.

It's the same thing when it snows here. We get a little bit of snow on the ground and the city goes into panic mode. We get 4 inches and the city shuts down. People from the Midwest laugh at us because they deal with snow drifts six months out of the year, but again, we don't get snow. It snows about every 2-3 years here, and most of the time it's not much and melts by noon. But when it stays, it does cause problems because it's not something Portlanders make a habit of preparing for - why bother when the chances are it will be a waste of time and money?

That's like a Floridian buying and putting wood over his windows just because it's hurricane season, even though no hurricane is coming.

Now, I will say, it does seem like in the past few years we have experienced more extremes in my part of the world. It does seem like the summers have been hotter - more 90+ days - and the winters have been a little tougher - more snow, more freezing - but that really could just be my own perception. Or maybe it is Global Warming - I'm not a scientist, I can't tell you for sure. All I really know is how it feels - and doing what I do in my other writing persona I know from experience people are always convinced the here and now is always the worst/best/smartest/dumbest/hottest/coldest/insert-your-superlative-here. The truth is it's probably not - it's just what is most recent in memory, or maybe that is true from your experience, but that doesn't make any one thing the most anything.

Sure feels that way though.

This is all a long-winded way for me to say Garoken Energy has always done Wife and I right, and if anyone cares I'd recommend them for your heating and cooling needs.

When we first bought our first (and only) house we had some issue with the furnace and they came out and walked us through how to make sure it was working right, how to change the furnace filter (who knew furnaces had filters?!), and how to work the gas fireplace (looks like wood stove - not one of those fancy ones with a light switch). The tech guy was very pleasant and patient, and despite the fact I paid $120 for this information I thought it was completely worth it.

See, I like it when my heating and cool works. I would never buy a house without air conditioning, because as I noted above 90 is too hot. In fact, in my house, 75 is too hot. I can't sleep when it's that warm...at least not well. Considering the fact I only get 5-6 hours a night during the week anyway, I need that to be quality. And yes, I am picky about that. If you hadn't noticed.

Then about a year ago, just as it was starting to get warm in June, the house suddenly stopped cooling. We were thinking our air conditioner was broken or something, so we called Garoken again. They had a guy out that day and he went straight to the furnace. Apparently our furnace is old (house was built in '85, and it was installed then), they only last about 15-20 years, and ours had been fixed a couple times in the past. Basically the fan and some other pieces were shot to hell. He was honest with us - he said he could try and fix it but no promises, or we could get a new one. He recommended the new one.

Now, at this point I'm wavering a bit. I mean, sure, a new one sounds good, and what else will they tell me, right? At the same time the facts were clear - it was old. He told me it was MAYBE operating at 50% efficiency and the minimum they sell now is 75%. We opted for the new one, an 80% efficiency model (sorry, that's as green as I could afford). Garoken had a crew out the next day to install it and test it out, and it worked great. It was quieter, faster at heating and distributing the cool from the AC, and it should save me money in the long-term. If I cared enough I'd attempt to track that kind of thing, but it's not like I can really do anything with that information - what, I'm going to exchange it for something else? It's not like a shirt I don't like the fit of.

Then there was this past weekend. We were gone most of Saturday but noticed it seemed a little warm in the house when we got home. The thermostat was registering 76, then 77, despite the fact it's set at 74. Sleeping was a little warm, but we brushed it off. Then Sunday came - holy crap!

By late afternoon it was 80 in the house - I think it peaked at 82. It was almost 90 upstairs. The vents were barely forcing out any air. Obviously something was not okay.

After a restless sleep I called Garoken Monday morning, hoping they could get someone out by Tuesday (since it was supposed to be 93 on Monday). I was pleased that they had someone at my house by 1pm, on a day that would presumably be busy, with it being a Monday, hot, and people have their own issues and needing someone to fix things.

So it turns out the filter was way dirty and we need to change it more often (see how this comes full circle?!), and that led to some freezing of the AC unit because it was running constantly, trying to do what the thermostat was demanding of it and bring down the continually rising temperature in the house.

Ever wondered how a AC unit gets thawed? They flip the furnace to Heat. On a 93 degree day, that blows. Still, they got it all fixed up, gave the AC unit a once over, dispensed advice (you know, you really should change your filter), and now everything works great. It cost me $120, but it's something I feel absolutely grateful for paying, because now it's a decent temperature in my house, I slept soundly last night, and I don't have to worry about the possibility of buying a new AC unit.

Perhaps this time I'll learn that thing about changing the air filter...might save me some money...

Walking and Eating - Two Good Things

You may have noticed the title of this blog and wondered why I called it "Northwest" instead of something like "Portland Area." Well, for one, it doesn't roll off the tongue nearly as well, but the real reason is because I don't find myself bound to just Portland. If there is something cool to see or somewhere tasty to fill my gullet from, I want to check it out.

Our neighbors to the north - by that I mean Washington, but more specifically Seattle - do a lot of good things right. In fact, Pike Street Market is one of my favorites places anywhere to go simply because of the variety of places to nibble from in a relatively small area.

So last summer when we took our first staycation - isn't that a great word? - Wifey and I were browsing the internet looking for something to do and we came across a walking tour in Seattle where you get taste all sorts of foods from various local eateries called Savor Seattle. It was kind of funny, because we had run across them from some place before - probably linked off some kind of What To Do in Seattle page - and thought it sounded kind of fun, but then forgot about it.

We looked at it a bit deeper and it sounded interesting, and Trip Advisor told us it was well worth it, but we still hemmed and hawed about whether or not to spend the money for a day trip up to Seattle (can't bring Ruby there, that's for sure). We finally said what the hell - it'll be an experience.

We aren't necessarily the most outgoing of people, so stuck in a group of 12-14 for three+ hours was a little sketchy. But the food sounded good and the reviews were great, so we signed up.

It turned out to be a beautiful day in Seattle and we were exposed to places we didn't know existed but foods we had never tried. Who knew I would like truffles on my pizza? Or that mussels really aren't that bad? I mean, really? And Savor Seattle, I must blame you for my new addiction to real dark chocolate - in a good way of course.

The long and short of it is we had a fantastic time and would absolutely recommend the Gourmet Seattle to anyone, whether you live in Seattle or not, whether you visit Seattle once or a 100 times. It's fun, you learn stuff, and you get some fantastic food.

We made a couple trips back earlier this year to take a couple other tours - first the Pike Place Off the Beaten Path tour (where we found the magic world of fresh spices!) and then the Coffee and Chocolate tour (seriously, how could anyone not pounce on that one?!). Every single one has been fun, worth the cost, and given us a bevy of places to go back and explore on our next trip.

So, walking food tours are a good thing, right? Well, it's not all cupcakes and puppy dog tails.

Since we had so much fun on our first tour in Seattle, we came home and looked for one in Portland. Sure enough, there are walking food tours in Portland as well with Portland Walking Tours. They happened to have room in a tour two days later, so we booked that too, the afternoon version of the Epicurean Excursion.

This one was decidedly different than Savor Seattle's. We got plenty of little tidbits of food, but part of what made the Seattle tour so good was we got to interact with the owner or someone responsible at each place, to hear why they do what they do, why it's so good, and why we should come back. Each person's passion for their respective craft was readily apparent, as was Savor Seattle's clear goal of building truly beneficial relationships for both them and the restaurant/food stall/etc.

The Portland one? Not so much.

Sure, we tried some things distinctively local - who knew Rogue Brewery made spruce gin? - but at the same time only a couple of the places were set up like the Seattle version, where representatives of the company were available to explain and answer questions. For us, that was a key component and that was a stark contrast between the two. And not in a good way for Portland.

In the end, we felt a little like we didn't get our money's worth on the Portland tour. That was a little disappointing after how much fun we had in Seattle, but now we know, right? Since then we've been able to plan out our own little walking tours of the Portland area, just the two of us, and made some great little finds (with help from the Internet).

So if you want to do something like that in Portland, find a local to help you out. If you want to do that in Seattle, choose Savor Seattle.

And if you love yourself some food and want to get a feel for what any new locale has to offer, this would be a good way to do it, though I don't know how prevalent these are across the U.S. or internationally. Definitely something to look into. For us, we'll definitely check one out the next city we visit.