It’s all pumpkin beers all week! ICYMI: Check out an update on our popular piece on the polarizing opinions on pumpkin beers. We are just drawn into this black hole of a controversy every year; it’s like watching a horror movie—you really don’t want to do it, and yet you can’t help popping one on and getting your nerves jangled.
If gourds give you grievance, and you want to bury them in the “pet cemetery” and hope to god you won’t be haunted by them for the rest of your life, you should probably stop reading right now.
But if you are a gourd groupie, you’ll love this list we put together of the pinnacle of pumpkin beers you can most likely find at a store down the street from you.
Happy haunting (…errr hunting)!
Hop Culture’s Picks for the 11 Best Pumpkin Beers Available in Most Stores Right Now
Alaskan Brewing Co. Pumpkin Porter
If you are looking for a beside-the-campfire pumpkin beer, this is the one. With over eleven pounds of pumpkin added to every barrel of this porter, Pumpkin Porter has a smooth, velvety mouthfeel, accompanied by plenty of smoked malts. Hints of spice and brown sugar join the pumpkin sweetness.
As of May 2024, you can find Alaskan Brewing beers in twenty-five states, mostly west of the Mississippi River (only four states to the east). To find an Imperial Pumpkin Porter near you, use Alaskan Brewing Co.’s Beer Finder.
Brooklyn Brewery Post Road Pumpkin Ale
“Tastes like autumn,” that’s how Brooklyn Brewery describes its “colonial-style” Post Road Pumpkin Ale.
A traditional take on American pumpkin beers, Brooklyn Brewery’s Post Road actually includes pounds of real Dickinson pumpkins and warm spices like nutmeg. Expect this one to deliver all the warm, fuzzy vibes you’d expect when pulling out a wool sweater from the closet and sitting around the fire for the first time.
Brooklyn Brewery describes the beer as “Warm aroma, biscuity malt center, and crisp finish.”
Today, Brooklyn Brewery distributes in thirty states, including AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NJ, NV, NY, OH, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, and VT, and over twenty countries. To find a Brooklyn Brewery Post Road Pumpkin Ale near you, use the Brooklyn Brewery Beer Finder. This seasonal beer is only available from August through November, so get it while you can.
Cigar City Good Gourd™
Good Gourd, we love good wordplay. So already, Cigar City won us over here—more treat than trick, in our opinion. Good Gourd drinks like a lighter ale despite the respectably dangerous 8.5% ABV, so actually, maybe this beer is more “trick” than we thought!
Considered an imperial pumpkin ale for that reason, Good Gourd gets hit with cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and vanilla for decadent pumpkin pie-like beer, as filling as it sounds.
You can find this exclamation point pumpkin beer in thirty-nine states, so you have a good chance of finding it at a store near you. Or, if you prefer not to leave your couch, just buy the beer in the Untappd Shop!
Dogfish Head Punkin Ale
The color here to keep in mind is brown instead of orange. A full-bodied brown ale, Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale gets hit with a truckload of brown sugar, warming spices, and pumpkin meat for “the perfect beer to warm up with,” according to Dogfish Head.
For us, this one is a classic that we consider a gateway to other pumpkin beers. Sure, maybe it’s a creaky cemetery gate squeaking in the wind.
Per Dogfish Head’s website, to spread the “Dogfish love,” they work with a network of 100+ wholesale partners, aka distributors nationwide. Meaning you can find its beer in all fifty states plus Washington, D.C. Use Dogfish Head’s Fish Finder to track down a Punkin Ale near you.
Elysian Brewing Pumpkin Pack
Each October for the last twenty years, Seattle-based Elysian Brewing hosted its Great Pumpkin Beer Festival. The experts on pumpkin beer have brewed over 100 pumpkin beers in the brewery’s entire twenty-five-year history, including the world’s first imperial pumpkin ale.
Today, one of the brewery’s most popular innovations, the Pumpkin Pack, continues to showcase just how good Elysian is with the gourd.
Per a press release, this year, the Pumpkin Pack includes the following:
Night Owl: First brewed in 1997, the pumpkin ale is made with pumpkin puree and juice, then spiced in conditioning with ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice. With vanilla, caramel, brown sugar, and, of course, pumpkin aromas and a creamy mouthfeel, this beer is the signature offering from the pumpkin pack.
Punkuccino: A pumpkin ale with the attitude of a world-weary barista, Punkuccino packs a short shot of Stumptown coffee toddy with just a shake of cinnamon and nutmeg. Punkuccino is Elysian’s take on the beloved pumpkin spice latte, offering everything you know and love about the caffeinated morning drink but kicking it up a notch with ABV!
The Great Pumpkin: The world’s first imperial pumpkin ale! Boasting intense aromas of pumpkin with sugar and spice on the nose, Great Pumpkin presents all the flavors of pumpkin pie in a glass, making it the perfect brew to indulge in throughout the season. This delectably smooth fall brew pours a deep copper color with a ghostly white head.
Dark O’ The Moon: Spookily smooth and chocolatey with a slight smokiness on the nose, this pumpkin stout pours dark as night and is brewed with fresh pumpkin and pumpkin seeds with a hint of cinnamon—making the perfect autumnal treat! With dark fruit and smoky flavors, this full-bodied, creamy-textured stout boasts intense flavors but still embraces low bitterness. As a Silver medal winner of the 2010 Great American Festival, this brew is a must-sip this season!
You can find Elysian’s Pumpkin Pack nationwide. Use the brewery’s Beer Finder to hunt for a Pumpkin Pack near you.
Flying Dog The Fear
“Why is there only one time of year when we embrace THE FEAR?” writes Flying Dog. “At all other times, THE FEAR dominates us, controls us, and prevents us from greatness. Whatever THE FEAR is that consumes you, learn to embrace it. Only then will the true artist in [you] rise up.”
Thanks, Flying Dog, for that terrifying prose. In reality, nothing to scare you here except the ABV on this imperial pumpkin beer—9% ABV. More spice forward than other versions, The Fear has a good amount of bark and bite.
Find Flying Dog beer in twenty-three states, including CA, CO, CT, DE, IL, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, VA, WV, and WI—plus Washington, D.C. Use Flying Dog’s Beer Finder to locate The Fear near you (which sounds a lot scarier than it is!).
Great Divide Pumpkin Ale
Malt sets apart Great Divide’s Pumpkin Ale. Featuring two-row, C-60, flaked wheat, Midnight Wheat, and Victory Malt, this pumpkin beer starts with a very strong, roasty, toasty background. In fact, Great Divide’s seasonal beer, available only from August through October, relies on the malts to pack most of the flavor here—brown sugar, pumpkin, and spice, basically fall flavors.
The key to this pumpkin beer is balance. Nothing is too overly sweet, spiced, or cloying. This is just fall in a can or glass.
Great Divide’s top markets are Colorado, Southern California, Oregon, Washington, and Texas, but the brewery actually distributes to twenty-eight states, including AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, KS, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, NC, NE, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, PA, SC, TX, VA, and WA. Use Great Divide’s Beer Finder to locate a Great Divide Pumpkin Ale near you.
New Belgium Voodoo Ranger Atomic Pumpkin
In 2017, this pioneering brewery relaunched its core portfolio, introducing Voodoo Ranger as one of its flagships.
Voodoo Ranger normally represents a series of IPAs “brewed with trendsetting hop and malt varieties—and served with a side of sarcasm,” according to New Belgium.
But come the fall, Voodoo Ranger veers left. New Belgium’s take on pumpkin beers includes cinnamon and a surprise addition of habanero chili peppers for “just the right amount of heat,” according to New Belgium.
We see where the “atomic” kicks in here!
Making this version utterly antithetical to the pumpkin beer oeuvre, Voodoo Ranger Atomic Pumpkin stands more as a vision of future pumpkin beers as opposed to the sometimes stale shelf they’ve fallen to in the past.
Look for this punchy pumpkin beer across New Belgium’s distribution in all fifty states plus Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Sweden, and Norway. The best thing to do is to use New Belgium’s Beer Finder to scout out a Voodoo Ranger near you.
New Holland Brewing Ichabod
Named after the classic Washington Irving tale, Ichabod sneakily creeps onto shelves in the fall, ensuring the legend lives on!
A flagship seasonal for New Holland, this pumpkin ale includes malted barley, real pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg for a pumpkin pie-esque beer that’s “perfectly paired with all things autumn,” according to New Holland.
You can find this pumpkin beer across New Holland’s forty-seven-state distribution footprint. Find the closest Ichabod to you on the brewery’s Beer Finder page.
Samuel Adams Jack-O Pumpkin Ale
Is there a truer autumnal pleasure than piling into the car and heading to the pumpkin patch to pick your chosen gourd to carve for the season? That’s the feeling you might get when you pick up a 6-pack or 12-pack of Jack-O Pumpkin Ale bottles off the shelves when it hits from August to October.
Starting with a base of Samuel Adams two-row pale malt blend and malted wheat, Jack-O also includes Hallertau hops and autumn spices.
And at only 4.4% ABV, this seasonal sipper is actually much more approachable around the campfire than some of the other imperial versions on this list.
“Put on your Halloween costume, crack one open, and treat yourself,” writes Samuel Adams.
You can get your hands on Jack-O Pumpkin across Samuel Adams’ entire footprint, which includes all fifty states and about three dozen countries. Check out Find Sam to find this seasonal pumpkin beer near you.
Schlafly Pumpkin Ale
In our humble opinion, Schlafly does the best job balancing out the pie spices with notes of real pumpkin and a nice full malt body. This is our gold standard when it comes to gourd-brewed ales. It’s decadent, doughy, and precisely what you would expect if you were to drink a pint of pumpkin pie. Dessert that you can drink!
Since August 2022, Schlafly Beer has distributed to sixteen states and Washington, D.C. But the easiest way to get his beer delivered right to you is by buying it in the Untappd Shop. Hit the button below!
Southern Tier Pumpking
One of the most widely available—and indeed the earliest to market each year—Southern Tier Pumpking is available right now. It wouldn’t be fall for a pumpkin beer drinker without a glass of this all-spiced concoction.
Pumpkin puree and pie spices combine for a classic malty, bready, cinnamony pumpkin beer with some additional notes of nutmeg and vanilla.
You can get your hands on this pumpkin beer across Southern Tier’s entire footprint, which includes more than thirty states. Check out Southern Tier’s Beer Finder to find a Pumpking near you.
You can also find Southern Tier beers in the Untappd Shop.
