Southern Tier Brewing Co. - "Pumking Nitro" and "Rum Barrel Aged Pumking"

Well, you almost escaped 2019 without a single pumpkin beer review. I tend to avoid reviewing them because these days, the market is insanely oversaturated and it's almost a cliche. At D'vines, we must have carried almost 20 different pumpkin beers this season. Everyone seems to make one these days, and most are pretty straightforward and without anything to seriously set them apart from the others. However, I'm always on the lookout for new things - or variations on old favorites - so I was excited to see these two from Southern Tier - special riffs on their vaunted "Pumking", the OG of pumpkin beers and the best one on the market in my humble opinion.

First up is their "Pumking Nitro", a 8.60% ABV nitrogenated version of the base beer. For those who may be unaware, "nitro" describes the type of gas used in the carbonation process. Nitrogen can be used in lieu of carbon dioxide to create a creamy, soft texture to the beer. According to John Hall at Craftbeer.com, nitro is most associated with "a certain brewery of Irish heritage hailing from Dublin," aka Guinness, but is being used across the beer world now. It's the same stuff that's in your nitro cold brew coffee.

13.6 fl oz can cracks open with a dramatic hiss, as if under immense pressure. As expected pours super creamy and generates a thick, impenetrable cap of foam.

In terms of flavor - not much different from the base beer. Same moderate pumpkin taste, good backbone of malts and a slightly sweet finish, BUT - the nitro creates a super thick, massively-creamy mouthfeel closer to a pumpkin milkshake than a beer. Nitro doesn't work for all beers, but I think this hit the mark for sure. However, for those uninitiated to nitro beers, this is going to be a surprise.

Now let's take a slightly different take - rum barrel aged! This sixtel keg was sitting in the back for a while, and we finally tapped it on Thanksgiving Day.

Oh wow, this beer has a BIG rum character. It's not super sweet, and in fact, a touch bracing - reminds me of a white rum. The pumpkin is there, a touch of spice, but some of the more nuanced spice notes present in the original have given way to a woody bite and a big white sugar punch. And interestingly, it's not super boozy either. There's a high amount of alcohol, but it's not as heavy and sweet as many other beers in class. I'm always impressed by these super-heavy beers that manage to hide the alcohol, and this is no exception.

Bonus - they even did a cold press version, which I had as well. Much lighter but definitely picking up on the coffee. I hope they do more versions of this next year!