Ahh, Autumn... and Beer

Updated 29 Nov 2013

I'm so glad to be back on the East Coast an changing seasons.  My favorite season is autumn.  I love the crispness in the air, the trees changing color, and all the awesome butternut squash dishes at local restaurants.  I also love the ales of the season, and being close to Wegman's!

Back in Silverdale, if I wanted to try an assortment of new pumpkin ales, I would have to buy a six-pack of each.  Some were pretty nasty, and I poured out several bottles.

Here at Wegman's (awesomest grocery store on the planet!), you can mix-and-match your own six packs, and they have quite a wide variety of pumpkin ales to try.

Of course, if you happen to be in the Northern Virginia area, then I HIGHLY recommend going to Sweetwater Tavern both for their extraordinarily good food AND for their AWESOME pumpkin ale in the fall.  Take a growler to go! 

To help out those of you who AREN'T so conveniently located next to Sweetwater Tavern or a Wegman's, and in order to prevent you from having to buy whole six-packs of what might later get poured down the sink, here's my votes for the pumpkin ales on a thumbs-up / meh-so-so / thumbs-down rating scale.  I still have three more in the fridge to try, so I'll come back and add them to the list later, but for those of you who may be headed to the store soon and are looking for recommendations, here's what I've tried so far (listed in order from good to not-so-good):

New Holland Brewery's Ichabod - Two Thumbs-UP, still my favorite pumpkin ale.  Strong, bold and balanced flavor.  No weird initial or aftertastes.  I anxiously await its arrival on the shelves at Wegman's. 

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale - Thumb$ Up.  Quality and taste were very good - on-par with my favorite Ichabod listed above, but pricey.  It's very good if you don't mind spending the money on 4 bottles instead of a six-pack.

Sam Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale - Thumbs-UP.  Sam Adams never disappoints with their seasonal ales.  Good flavor, not too strong, very enjoyable.








 

Red Hook Pumpkin Porter - Thumbs-UP.  Very tasty.  Didn't taste very much like pumpkin, but I still enjoyed it.  I'd buy it again.

Devil's Backbone Ichabod - Thumbs-UP.  Like the Red Hook, it didn't have a strong pumpkin flavor, but it was still very enjoyable.  I'd buy it again.

Traveler Jack-O Shandy - Thumbs-UP.  Added 13 Oct 2013, I liked this one a lot.  It was light and crisp, with a good balance between the lemon peel and pumpkin flavors.  There weren't any strong perfumy or heavy-spice flavors.  There weren't any detectable hops flavors either.  I bought this one as a mixed-up six-pack from Wegmans, but I enjoyed it enough that I went back and bought another full six-pack of this.

Saranac Pumpkin Ale - Thumbs-UP.  Flavor was good, although it did leave a slight after-taste.  I wouldn't turn away a bottle if offered, but if going to buy a six-pack for home, I'd look for one of the others listed above.

Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale - Thumbs-UP.  Added 13 Oct 2013.  The flavor in this one was pretty strong.  If you're not a pumpkin ale fan, then I would steer clear of this one.  It wasn't overpoweringly perfumy or spice-flavored, so I actually enjoyed it and finished the bottle.  Not much hops either.  Like the Saranac above, I wouldn't turn away a bottle if offered, and if you're picking out a mixed-up six-pack at someplace like Wegman's, then I'd include this in your sampler six pack.  Given how strong the flavor is, I'd be cautious about buying a full six-pack if you haven't tried it first.


 

Southern Tier - Imperial Pumpking Ale - Thumbs-Up.  Added 7 Nov 2013.  Very strong, nutty flavor, but not perfumy like some of the others.  Like the Weyerbacher, if you're not a pumpkin ale fan, then I would steer clear of this one.  Very light on the hops / not a strong hoppy flavor.  I enjoyed it though and finished the bottle.  It has a pretty high alcohol content - 8.9% by volume. 

Post Road Pumpkin Ale - Tough call.  Heavy hops, and I'm not a big fan of hoppy-beers.  If you like hops, you should probably give this a try.  As for me, I won't be going back for this one.  Also, flavor was better when I first opened the bottle.  As I got toward the bottom of the bottle, the taste of the pumpkin spices got pretty strong.  

Blue Moon Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale - well...  not so much.  Although it has a picture of a pumpkin on the label and says "pumpkin" in small letters under the BIG "HARVEST MOON" label, there's no detectable taste of pumpkin here.  Now, that being said, it was a pretty tasty, standard Oktoberfest type of beer, so I listed it here above some of the "meh" rated beers with weird tastes.





Harpoon's Pumpkin UFO (unfiltered offering) -  Meh.  It was okay.  I finished the bottle at least, but tasted pretty perfumy.  Given the choice of other pumpkin ales on the shelf, I'd skip probably skip this one.

Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale.  Meh.  Fairly light in body. Definitely pumpkin flavored. Tasted a little weird but nothing I could put my finger on. Not something I'd rave about or buy again.



 




New Belgium Pump-Kick.  Meh.  Odd flavor.  It says something about pumpkin and cranberry on the label.  I finished the bottle, but I won't be going back for any more of this one.




 

Shipyard Pumpkinhead - Yech!  Thumbs-DOWN.  It has an amaretto taste to it, and I HATE amaretto.  That being said, if YOU like amaretto, then you might want to give it a try.








Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale - Yech!  Thumbs-DOWN.  Waaaaay too perfumy and overpowering strong flavors.  I couldn't take more than a couple of sips.  Poured the rest of the bottle down the sink.  Poured the rest of the six-pack down the drain, too. 

Shock Top Pumpkin Wheat - Yech!  Thumbs-DOWN.  Similar to the Elysian - too perfumy and very strong flavor.  I did manage to finish about half a bottle of this before I gave up.  I poured the rest of the six pack down the drain. 

Jacques Au Lantern - Blech!  Thumbs-DOWN.  After one sip of this, I poured the rest of the bottle down the kitchen sink.  Like the Elysian and Shock Top - very perfumy and STRONG flavor.

Mayne's Tree Farm

On Monday, some friends of ours from church invited us to join their family tradition of going to Mayne's Tree Farm to go for a hay ride and pick out pumpkins. Mayne's is in a small but adorable town called Buckeystown, Maryland not far from Frederick.

We were really impressed with Mayne's. It was a truly enjoyable experience. It's out in a very rural area and isn't at all commercialized.

Right after we pulled into the parking lot, the farmer brought out the John Deere tractor pulling a trailer with some hay bales on it. We all climbed on board and enjoyed the ride out to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins.



We told the boys the same rule as the family who invited us - they each got to pick one pumpkin, and they could pick any pumpkin they wanted as long as they could carry it.

I picked one out, too.

Pumpkin Self-Defense

The boys bent the rules a bit and decided that their stuffed animals should each get a pumpkin, too.

Lotis and his pumpkin

Teddy and his pumpkin

Weighing-In and Paying-Up

After we finished at Mayne's Tree Farm, we had an awesome lunch at a pizza place just north of Buckeystown. Then we did some sight seeing around the Maryland countryside on our way back home.

The farmland up there is beautiful.

I love autumn.

We took White's Ferry back across the Potomac north of Leesburg, Virginia. Then we stopped at a few Loudon County vineyards to do some wine-tasting. There were some gorgeous flowers out in front of the Lost Creek and Hidden Creek vineyards.

Overall, it was a wonderful autumn day out in the country with my family. If you're in the DC area and looking for a nice day's outing to pick up some pumpkins with your family, then I highly recommend Mayne's Tree Farm.

REMINDER: THIS WEEKEND is the Loudoun County Fall Color Tour! Click on the link for a map and list of participating farms and what they will be offering.

First day in the new job

Today was my first day at the new job.

Man my feet hurt.

I walked 8 blocks from the bus stop to the office, I walked what seemed like miles around the Pentagon doing check-in stuff, I walked from the Pentagon back over to Crystal City, and I walked from the office back down the 8 blocks to the bus stop again.

...Wearing new leather uniform shoes.

...I have blisters the size of Rhode Island.

Other than that though, the first day wasn't too bad.

I hitched a ride to the Dulles North park-n-ride with my next door neighbor and took the Loudoun County commuter bus in to Crystal City. I left the house at 0553 and arrived at the office at 0708, so 1 hour and 15 minutes total door-to-door. It broke down about like this:

13 minute car ride to Dulles North
50 minute bus ride
12 minute** walk to my office

**Update 10/11/08: I figured out there is another bus stop that's a lot closer to my office, like 3 blocks away. It only takes me 8 minutes to walk slowly on my blisters, or 5 minutes if I walk at a brisk pace.

The Loudoun County commuter bus was pretty nice. It's not like it was an hour wasted driving my own car in traffic. I got to read and write emails on my Blackberry during the bus ride in. (Aside: I forgot how dark it is that time in the morning). This afternoon on the way home I read a book. I look forward to making a dent in my "books I wanna read" list.

When I got to work this morning, I admired a beautiful sunrise over Washington, D.C. from the windows of my new office. Then I dove into the bureaucracy and started plugging away at my three different check-in lists and sat through boring security indoctrination videos.

So who the hell is BOB anyway?

I've had the same gosh darn cell phone number for four years now, and all of a sudden I've started getting phone calls out the wazoo for somebody named "Bob." I've started asking the callers who Bob is and how they got my phone number, but they evade the question or hang up. Today I came out of my office to find I had two missed calls from the same phone number, and no sooner did I turn on my cell phone than the phone rang - a NEW call from the SAME number I had already missed twice, and of course it was someone looking for "Bob."

I suppose I need to start screening my cell phone calls. I'll put a message on my voice mail explaining this is NOT Bob's phone and not to call back.

Somebody help me out. What's the difference between a catapult and a torsion catapult?

Did you know there is an annual pumpkin launching contest in Delaware? It's called the World Championship Punkin Chunkin, and it's being held Oct 31st through Nov 2nd this year. The competition is divided into several classes - pneumatic ("air"), centrifugal, trebuchet, catapult, human-powered and torsion catapult to name a few.

Looking at the pictures of last year's event, these contraptions are HUGE. Then again, I suppose they would need to be in order to fling a 10 pound pumpkin as far as possible.

It sounds like a pretty fun event that the boys might enjoy watching if it wasn't way over in Delaware.