A few years back<\/a>,\u00a0I ranked this as a solid “s’allright.” Nothing more, nothing less. This year they’ve turned up the volume on the sweet nutty malts and made a real quality true-to-style Marzen that I was surprised to find myself quite enjoying.<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BKhM8mGgYzp\/<\/p>\n
Southern Tier Pumking<\/h3>\n I think it’s safe to say that the King is back. Or at least well on his way.<\/p>\n
For about 3-4 years running now, I’ve been more and more let down by the previous gold standard for pumpkin beers: Pumking. Once capable of inducing madness amongst the pumpkin-minded, Pumking over the last few years had (to my palate, at least) dropped in both\u00a0flavor and body in favor of something a little milder and easier drinking for the larger array of drinkers that Southern Tier was able to sell their\u00a0beer to. I can still remember the first draft pour of Pumking I had at Hackney’s in the South Loop back in like 2008. I barely recall the disappointment of last year’s bomber aside from the shrug I gave it.<\/p>\n
This was a real bummer to folks like me who just want a massive wallop of pumpkin pie packed into 22oz. of liquid. The pumpkinsanity of the last few years has certainly faded overall — I haven’t even had a single pumpkin spice latte yet this year, and I’m usually good for two or three of those high-calorie syrup-bombs — and ST has apparently decided to return to the game of rich, roasty, rough-edged pumpkin goodness with a big punch of graham cracker crust\u00a0that really pleased me this time. I think I might grab another one tonight. They’re only like $7, anyways.<\/p>\n
Bells Best Brown<\/h3>\n Two Hearted is the perfect IPA. Oberon is the perfect wheat beer. And if Bells only had Best Brown as a third and final beer, they’d\u00a0still\u00a0be batting 1000% because it’s the perfect brown ale. Love this beer.<\/p>\n
This has been Hot Takes, Quick Tastes. As always, if a beer is received gratis, we will disclose at all times, including birthday beers. If you\u2019ve got a beer you\u2019d like us to try, we probably won\u2019t accept it (we ignore most \u201chey want some\u00a0free beer\u201d emails because we\u2019re happy to buy our own), but you can try to email us and maybe you’ll catch us on a good day.<\/em><\/p>\nBonus points if you can name the brewery flight in the lead photo. No one has yet.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We’ve been on a rampage of marzens, pumpkin ales, brown ales and the like. Here’s what were digging, and what we’ve found to be…just okay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":20199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[230,309,954,298,325,955],"yoast_head":"\n
Hot Takes Quick Tastes -- Fall Beers | Guys Drinking Beer<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n