Brewed by Brooklyn Brewery
5.0% ABV

Picking up a pumpkin brew from my local liquor store the other day, I impulsively grabbed one off the shelf and since I needed one to match it up against, I decided to grab another. The nearest one being the Post Road Pumpkin Ale. 

While the other beer went on about "all-malt" and four different spices, this beer in its modest label just uttered (in small letters)

Ale brewed with pumpkin and spices

Not very inspiring, but perhaps the brew masters of this beer wanted the beer to speak for itself. I had to see if it worked out this way.

Brewed by Michelob
12oz @ 5.5% ABV

In my quest to brew an excellent Pumpkin Ale, I figured I would sample the landscape first. Strolling through one of my local liquor stores, I spied a pumpkin ale sitting on a shelf near me. A pretty orange and brown label proclaimed "Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale" with the picture of a pumpkin-headed scarecrow-like fellow. The label further proclaimed that it was an "all-malt" brew with pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and clove.

Sounded good to me, so I grabbed a six-pack off the shelf and another pumpkin ale sitting nearby and strolled up to the cash register. As the man at the register rang me up, he said, "Huh. I didn't know Michelob brewed a pumpkin beer!" As I looked again at the label, sure enough, Jack's was a creation of those folks at Michelob. Knowing that many of these large breweries actually have talent, I wondered if they could compete with the microbreweries known for their specialty brews.

Some of you attended the 2nd ever "OpenBrew" at my place a few weeks ago. (The 1st one was held at Blurry's place in July of 2007, as I recall...) Well, I decided it would be informative to post a few pics of the beers in action, especially for those of you who missed the OpenBrew session. The beers are already racked and kegged, so these pictures are from a few weeks ago. Enjoy!