Pumpkin Season

Hey, so I've been busy with moving and not having internet at home...  that tends to make posting hard.

Anyways, it's pumpkin season.  Fall is pretty awesome, winter beers come up soon after fall seasonals and rein in an era of amazing dark beer that lasts until spring.  My favorite fall seasonal has to be Red Ales, it is just so much fuller than an amber or something Hoptober (New Belgium; that is a pretty tasty ale though).  Not to mention that beautiful dark ruby that it pours.  One of the best reds that I've had is Elysian's Men's Room (which seems to be available year round), on the cheaper side of things is Pyramid's Juggernaut (only in the fall).

Anyways, I've been really wanting to try some pumpkin ale, but it's pretty scarce in Spokane for some reason.  I've seen a couple that I can pick up so it should be ok.

To subsitute I had a pretty sweet beer.  New Belgium's 1554, a "enlightened" black ale.  Interestingly enough this uses a lager yeast, proof that good beer doesn't have to be an ale only.  It weighs in at a nice 5.6% ABV with a silky, but not thick consistency.  Not much aroma to it, but the taste is full of a nice malty, but not an in-your-face roasted flavor you'll get in porters or stouts; follow this up tons of chocolate flavor and you have 1554.  Oh, did I mention that I had it with a slice of pumpkin pie?  The spicier the pie, the better.

I guess that wasn't really a short post.   Here's the site for more info on 1554