11 Pumpkin Beers Ranked — This One Was The Absolute Best

The air is crisp and leaves are threatening to change colors. Football fans fill stadiums and pumpkin is reemerging as the flavor of choice. At least that is what they tell me. In my region of the country, the heat is stifling and fall feels distant. But it wasn't raining when Noah built the ark, so I rounded up 11 pumpkin beers and tried them all to find the best.

When I started the assignment, my hometown was suffering through its 38th triple-digit heat day of the summer. Finding pumpkin beer was a fool's errand. A clerk at the liquor store shuddered and walked away when I told her what I was looking for. Most of them told me to check back in a couple of months. But through perseverance, I assembled a final mix that included beers from nationally recognized brands and regional breweries. The collection is incomplete, but representative of the diverse styles available. 

There is more information about how the beers were ranked at the end of this article, but it boils down to these are my rankings. All of the beers had positive characteristics, and the top five can be considered best of class, but there was one clear winner: a must-try pumpkin beer. But at the end of the day, you are a better judge than me. This article should be used as a guide, but the next step is visiting a brewery or a well-stocked grocery store with the best beer selection to start your own ranking.

The unfortunate nature of a ranking is that something has to come in last. Here, the designation goes to Tupps Pumpkin Bock. This was a flavorful dark beer at 5.6% ABV, but there wasn't enough pumpkin essence to rank it any higher. Some folks in North Texas (where the brewery is located) may deride me as a troglodyte with dulled senses, but I struggled to detect pumpkin or spice.

Bocks are a popular style of beer in Texas. Tupps Pumpkin Bock was a deep amber in the glass with a creamy and persistent head. The aroma was malty with subtle hints of spice. It had the strong, somewhat bitter flavor that many people expect from a dark beer. There was possibly a faint drying spice in the finish that could have been cinnamon or nutmeg, but it was hard to tell. Dark beer lovers who want a pumpkin beer that doesn't taste like pumpkin will love it, but that's a niche group.

There aren't formal rules about what constitutes a pumpkin beer, and pumpkin beers get their flavor from different sources. Some use real pumpkin, others add flavoring, and some skip the gourd entirely. Tupps Pumpkin Bock appears to fall into the last category since the brewery's website describes it as a nutty bock with pumpkin spices. It also says, "This is not your basic WITCH beer," and it tastes like it was brewed to support that slogan rather than top pumpkin-beer rankings.

Left Hand's Pumpkin Spice Latte Nitro took the opposite approach to the aforementioned Pumpkin Bock, but ended in a similar spot in the ranking. This brew goes all in on the pumpkin spice latte craze. It feels like the brewery saw how many PSLs Starbucks sells every year and decided to hitch a ride on that train. With 7% ABV, the beer is brewed with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, pumpkin, and coffee. Toasted malts add a touch of caramel, and the nitro foam is intended to mimic latte foam.

This beer probably had the biggest nose of the ones sampled. As soon as the can hissed open, it smelled like someone was baking pies in the kitchen. Instead of the dark color I expected from a coffee-infused beer, it was an orange-hued amber. The coffee was subtle on the nose and in the flavor. Instead, the beer had a pronounced churro-like cinnamon taste. The first sip was my favorite, but the sweetness continued to build from there until it overpowered everything else. The previous beer was at the bottom of the ranking for not being a basic witch beer — this one ranks near it for embracing its basic witchiness.

There was not much information online about what to expect from Martin House Brewing's Gourdius, so everything I had to go on was printed on the can — and it wasn't promising. The can advertised it as an imperial pumpkin stout with cheesecake flavoring. "Imperial" is a term tossed around loosely in the beer community, but it typically means higher alcohol and more pronounced flavor. It can come in any style: IPAs, stouts, or even pilsners. Gourdius is an imperial stout with an ABV of 10%, or roughly equivalent to that of a light wine.

The imperial part was fine, but the cheesecake flavoring was a baffling concept. The beer was a dark, nearly black color, with a thin head. Cheesecake flavoring dominated the nose, and it smelled artificial, like something from a plastic pump at a gas station coffee bar. The flavor reinforced that analysis. The beer tasted like coffee sweetened with syrup. The finish is long and full of spice. Martin House brews many fine beers, but Gourdius is a confusing one that fits firmly in the bottom half of this ranking.

Southern Tier prides itself on its innovative approach to brewing and its willingness to take risks. It has gone all in on its Pumking Imperial Pumpkin Ale. According to a (corny) story on the website, Pumking rules over the Pumpkingdom that is "fueled by the magical powers of pumpkin flavor." The "Flavor Realms" include a pumpkin-flavored cider, a caramel Pumking, and even a Pumking Whiskey from Southern Tier Distilling, among others.

This beer was surprisingly muted for an imperial pumpkin ale with an 8.6% ABV. There were notes of pumpkin and spice on the nose, but I had to get in there and give it a solid whiff to smell it. It was light orange with a foamy, short-lasting head. The flavor was malty and ale-like with mellow pumpkin and a hint of spice. It's an inoffensive, drinkable beer, but it didn't take a big enough flavor swing for me to rank it any higher. Pumking might be the king of its own castle, but it's in the bottom half of these rankings.

Shipyard brews Pumpkinhead, a beer that it proclaims is "the greatest pumpkin beer of all time." I couldn't find Pumpkinhead to put the claim to the test, but I did stumble across a can of Smashed Pumpkin, which the brewery describes as "Pumpkinhead's big brother." The Cooper Manning of pumpkin beer was a spiced imperial ale with a pronounced beer flavor and 9% ABV. The American ale backbone gave it a no-frills character that reminded me of the type of seasonal ale Homer Simpson might order at Moe's.

The beer was an amber color with a thick and persistent head. There was lots of spice on the nose alongside a malty beer aroma. The initial taste was that of a full-flavored American ale that gave way quickly to spices. There wasn't a discernible pumpkin flavor — the spices were the main event. They were fall spices, but they reminded me of wassail or apple cider more than pumpkin. The straightforward ale flavor was nice, and so were the spices, but the combination didn't quite come together. Smashed Pumpkin rounds out the bottom five in this ranking.

Dogfish Head first released Punkin Ale in 1995, and it is one of the brews that helped revive pumpkin beers during the craft beer revolution. It's a brown ale, which is an excellent choice for pumpkin beer because it naturally has a well-rounded sweetness. The beer is named for the sport born in southern Delaware. Punkin chunkin involves using mechanical means to hurl a pumpkin as far as possible, and by most accounts is a pretty wild event. After a 33-year run in Delaware, the event pulled stakes in 2019 and has bounced between locations since, but Dogfish Head keeps the spirit alive with its fall beer.

The beer was a light amber color, more transparent than expected, with a thin, foamy head. Pumpkin meat, brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg were abundant on the nose. The beer was full-flavored, and the spices provided a comforting tingle that would be perfect on a chilly day. The flavor got bigger with each sip, and that was a good thing. The beer is easy-drinking but packs a deceptively hefty 7% ABV. Punkin Ale is one of the classics, and it's a reliable choice for a satisfying fall brew.

Jack-O is a great choice for folks who want the full-on pumpkin beer experience. Samuel Adams' website describes it as "bursting with flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg, and autumn spices." The brewery is known for producing big flavors and special seasonal releases. This is perhaps best exemplified by Utopias, a limited-edition brew that is one of the strongest beers in the world. 

Jack-O didn't have the intense flavor of Utopias, but it packed a lot of pumpkin pie into a 12-ounce can. Despite the big flavors, the beer remained well-balanced. It was fruity more than sweet, with almost no bitterness and a clean finish. Jack-O also has a relatively low ABV of 4.4%, so you can drink more than one of them without turning into a ghoul.

The beer was a medium amber color with a faint pumpkin glow and a big, frothy head. It smelled like someone set a fresh-baked pie next to the glass. The most impressive aspect of Jack-O was that it maintained a crisp finish. Too often, sweet beers leave a syrupy feeling in the mouth, but that wasn't the case with this one. Those looking for big pumpkin pie flavors in a drinkable beer will find them in the Sam Adams fall release.

Fat Head's Spooky Tooth is an imperial pumpkin ale with an 8% ABV. It was a pleasant drinking beer with a well-rounded body. According to the brewery's description, it has a chewy mouthfeel with a pumpkin-forward flavor that gives way to sweet malt, pie crust, spice, and brown sugar. That description led me to think this would be one of the sweeter beers, but it wasn't. It was flavorful, but in a way that felt natural and intentional.

The beer was golden brown with a thin, creamy head. The pumpkin gave it a mellow sweetness, and the spices tasted like they were added as a dash rather than a pour. The lighter hand with the spices allowed the flavor of the base beer to take a starring role. The pronounced pumpkin made the beer rich and savory without tasting artificial. This is the choice for those who want classic pumpkin beer flavors — but at a simmer instead of a rolling boil. Calling a beer balanced can be ambiguous, but Spooky Tooth is a good example of it. There is a lot going on, but the flavors complement each other and don't feel forced.

Brookyln Brewery's Post Road Pumpkin stood out for being a versatile, easy-drinking beer. It was unmistakably a pumpkin beer, but not a pumpkin pie beer. There were hints of nutmeg in the brew, but the foundational flavor came from the real pumpkin used during brewing. It has a reasonable ABV of 5% and is a great choice for a tailgate on a crisp day or a companion to a spicy bowl of chili.

The beer was an orange-tinged amber that poured with a thin head. I anticipated a traditional spiced pumpkin beer based on the brown sugar and cinnamon on the nose, but they were stronger in aroma than flavor. Instead, Post Road had a malty, light ale taste with prominent savory pumpkin. The spices fade into the background but are faintly detectable in the finish if you focus on finding them. Those who like big pie flavor and a rich mouthfeel would likely rank the Dogfish Head and Sam Adams beers above this one, but for a smooth drinking ale made with real pumpkin, it's hard to beat this release from Brooklyn Brewery.

Kentucky Pumpkin Barrel Ale had the layers of flavor and distinctive characteristics that make a seasonal release special. It wasn't a sweet beer, but it was decadent. According to the website, it's brewed with pumpkin butter and spices before aging in bourbon barrels. Pumpkin Barrel was a nice sipping beer with a potent 10% ABV. The beer had a well-balanced flavor that mellowed in the barrel. It is the type of beer to drink by a fireplace while you contemplate each sip as you would a fine whiskey.

As I poured the strong ale, wafts of yeasty brown sugar and vanilla rose from the glass. It was a honey-like amber with a thin, foamy head. The beer was medium-bodied with hints of caramel, but it wasn't overly sweet. Some of the most interesting flavors came through in the finish with dashes of spice and bourbon notes from the oak barrels. Kentucky Pumpkin Barrel Ale won a gold medal at the 2014 World Beer Championships, and it is still one of the top pumpkin beers around.

The clear choice for the top position, Saint Arnold's 2024 Pumpkinator aged in bourbon barrels was in a class of its own. It had the same enjoyable barrel-aged characteristics of Kentucky Pumpkin Barrel Ale, but the flavor was richer and more luxurious. Most of the beers in the ranking were imperials, but Pumpkinator had a concentrated, complex flavor that was more intense than what any of the other beers offered. It was the strongest beer — with 13.6% ABV — but there wasn't a bite. 

The brew was black and poured into the glass without developing any head. The aroma was malty and spicy in a way that reminded me of black licorice. It was sweet like molasses but tempered with savory pumpkin. The long finish carried the spices and some oakiness from the barrel. Pumpkinator brought the depth of flavor found in a fine Belgian ale to a pumpkin beer.

The seasonal release has won gold, silver, and bronze medals at the World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival, and it has a world-class rating on BeerAdvocate with a score of 95. It's flavorful enough to be used as a pumpkin dessert that's not pie, but the quality comes at a price. The 12-ounce bottle I found cost $8.50, and Saint Arnold's website says it is the most expensive beer it's ever brewed. Pumpkinator is a special-occasion beer that tops this ranking and deserves a spot on any pumpkin beer lover's bucket list.

Finding pumpkin beer in Austin before October is an arduous task. To gather the initial pool, I visited five of the best-stocked bottle shops in town, four liquor stores, and three grocery stores — and ended up with a paltry collection. I then resorted to begging brewers to send me samples. Full disclosure: some of them did, but their generosity was not allowed to influence the rankings. As a final step, I expanded to online shopping. The pool was by no means complete, but it's reasonable to assume that for a week I was in possession of one of the most diverse pumpkin beer collections in Texas.

There were a few significant challenges in ranking the beers. Assembling a panel for a blind taste test is a typical approach for an assignment such as this, but the variety of beers worked against that. Without a cicerone guiding the experience, we were likely to jump haphazardly between big flavors and contrasting styles until the taste buds were muddled to a point of uselessness. It's also hard to judge this style of beer off one sip. You have to sit with them for a while. A beer that tastes pleasantly sweet at first can turn cloying when trying to finish a pint.

I put a fireplace on the television and sampled the beers in half-pint tastings to capture their full essence. I sampled two beers per day over the course of a week and kept detailed notes on their characteristics. The opinions are my own, but are generally supported by the consensus of online reviews. 

Some recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.