7th Annual GPBF Recap

Elysian put on a spectacular, and well planned, pumpkin boozing extravaganza.


From pumpkin ice cream and doughnuts to complimentary carving pumpkins.


Three beers tapped straight from pumpkins and it's not exactly easy to pick a favorite.

But to keep my head from being lopped off I would choose the festival namesake - The Great Pumpkin.

Buttery clove and toasted pumpkin meat. Possibly the best pumpkin beer ever?

Dark o' the Moon was liquid delight that had even more of a cinnamon sugar pie taste after being drained from the massive gourd.

Most Unique:  Coche de Medianoche - Cumin, guajillo chilies, and cayenne with roasted pumpkin seeds.  7.5%.

Best Name:  Saison of the Witch - 120 pounds of roasted Baby Pam pumpkins and fennel fronds.  5.6%.

The Strongest:  Rumpkin - Avery Brewing spiced this perfectly and aged the concoction in Gosling Rum barrels for 6 months. 16%.

The Subtlest:  Kürbitinus Pumpkin Dunkelhefeweizenbock - Bavarian yeast, pumpkin in the mash, kettle, and fermenter. 6.65%.

Craziest Color:  PK-47 Pumpkin Malt Liquor - Corn sugar, yellow #6, and red #4.  This looked like radioactive pumpkin juice.  6.2%.

Most Anticipated:  Pumpkinator - Saint Arnold Brewing came through with an imperial molasses coated pumpkin stout.  One of the best at the festival and from one of the greatest cities. 10%.

Most Surprising:  Great Pumpkin Ale - Cambridge Brewing had the other "GP."  MA grown barley and sugar pumpkins.  4.4%.

Best Non-Spiced:  SasquatchKin Imperial Pumpkin Stout - Black Raven Brewing took away the standard spices and left only Kabocha pumpkins, sugar pie pumpkin, acorn squash, and kuri squash. ? %.

Most Bizzare:  Punk Rauchen - Silver City had a curiously tasting smoked apple wood pumpkin beer that lived up to the ash. 6.3%.

Battle of the Bourbons:  Elliot Bay's PABST (pumpkin and bourbon stout together) coupled organic spices in Heaven Hill bourbon barrels.  9%.  Fremont Brewing's Punk'n B-bomb defiles roasted pumpkin flesh in 20 year old bourbon barrels.  9%.  The winner? Whoever consumed either.

Plenty of others that deserve mention.  After two days I noticed I had a stem growing from my head.