October keeps rolling on. Soon enough, the big night will be here (it's next week!). Until then, I have a small handful of pumpkin and Halloween-inspired beverages to get to. Will I make it to all of them? We'll see. That's the scariest part of the season for me.

Tonight, however, we're visiting a variant of an old favorite: Schlafly's Pumpkin Ale. How does adding vanilla to a tried-and-true standby tweak the flavor? Let's dive in and find out.

Lo!, the veil now grows thin, weakening to a mere patch of gossamer hanging loose in its haphazard suspension betwixt our world and that of those who no longer walk amongst us. Devilry is afoot on this dark and unholy eve, dear reader. I hope that your curtains are drawn tightly over your windows. I hope that you are well-kept against the terror this night brings. I hope that should some manner of ghastly or gruesome creature call upon your door, you are able to appease its infernal appetite with what you are best able to offer, dispelling it forevermore from your dwelling.

What might you offer to this vision upon your step? Well, sweet treats may just suffice. Yet, if this monster prowls low as some horrid feline, something of greater heft and richness may be needed to make it leave you be. Would, perchance, a bottle of Southern Tier's Caramel Pumking would banish the beast? Perhaps, fellow cowerer in the dark. Perhaps.

I've had two Ellicottville beers on the blog, and neither have made an impression on me that goes above "meh." Four years ago it was Pumpkinville Latte, which I gave a 7.5/10. I tried their Blueberry Maple Pancake five months later--that one ended up with a 7.0/10.

Why, then, did I grab today's can when I saw it at my local bottleshop? I have two reasons: 1) I'm easily swayed by anything with the Headless Horseman on it and 2) I'm always allured by barrel aging. 

Here in our just-east-of-Cincinnati home, our pumpkins will soon be carved and our toddler's fast asleep. Now's the perfect time to find out if Ellicottville's Whiskey Barrel Aged Craft Ale with Coffee and Pumpkin (a collaboration with Iron Smoke Distillery) is scary good or frighteningly mediocre.

I don't care that most of last week was in the 80-degree range. It's October. It's finally, finally October. And, here in week two of the month, a chill is beginning to settle upon the region. What's the weather going to be in a few days? Who cares? It's cool now. The nights are dark and lengthening. Let's dive into pumpkin season.

The first beer of Spooky Finger Puppet Ghost Month 2023 is something I picked up after '22's pumpkin beer season. I saw an eight-pack of it on my local bottleshop's shelves and couldn't resist the impulse purchase. I drank the first seven in pretty quick succession but have held onto the the final can for today. I'll let you know what I remember about the ale: It's light and I like it.

The beer's from Lone Pine (makers of my favorite Independence Day beer not brewed for Independence Day). Grab yourself a drink and find a blanket for the cold. This evening, we're drinking Pumpkin Party.

I love me some Thirsty Dog. The brewery makes the best seasonal beer around (including my all-time favorite Christmas beer). Last year, I came to the conclusion that, aside from making great Christmas ales and Oktoberfest lagers, the Akron-based brewery also has a killer pumpkin ale in their repertoire. 

Earlier this fall (or late-summer, I guess) (probably sometime in August or September), the brewery posted an Instagram story featuring their Barrel Aged Imperial Pumpkin Ale. I was filled with an immediate curiosity. Where I live, I don't have access to much of the special beers Thirsty Dog puts out, but I kept my fingers crossed that I'd come across a bottle of this supped-up Pumpkin Ale. Luckily for me (and for you, reading this), I found one. Now, here at the very end of Spooky Finger Puppet Ghost Month, I'm ripping the foil off my bottle and seeing if it's as good as I hope it is.

It is by the broad light of day that I type this missive. I woke this morning before the sun had risen bright in the east. From the seat of my porch did I watch it banish the long night I had weathered, the darkness shrinking to but spindly shadows reaching for the west in anticipation of the sun's departure from this land. The dark of night is not long banished.

We are now well within that time of year when those frightful wee hours are well populated by that which we cannot explain. Spectres of those time ago lost return for rites they never received. Beasts unnamed prowl through wood and field alike, seeking ever to satiate, in vain, their insatiable hunger.  The sky beneath pale moonlight is alight with echoing cackles and screeching bats. All Hallow's Eve draws nigh. I can no longer resist the nightly call of the beer that is Hoppin' Frog's Frog's Hollow.

It's finally that mystical time of year, when the fabric of the veil begins to wane and the nights grow all the cooler, darker, and longer. I've spent the better part of today at my favorite Oktoberfest celebration but I'm always ready to revel in the murkier parts of the the Halloween season.

As such, we have the blog's first pumpkin ale of the season: North High's Farm Hand. How is it? Let's find out.

This post is about a ghost. No, not an actual ghost. Those don't really exist. Instead, this post is about a ghost beer. It's a bit of a mental leap to get to that claim, so I'll walk you through it.

Around the time I was really started my craft beer journey, MadTree released barrel-aged variants of its The Great PumpCAN. Pumpkin beers and I didn't really see eye to eye at that time and the BA PumpCAN releases weren't even on my radar. It wasn't until I visited MadTree a few months after the release that I saw a poster for the beers and knew what I'd missed out on.

Now, let's pivot to talk about whales. I promise, this loops back around. A whale is a limited, rare, and highly sought-after beer. I've been lucky enough to enjoy a whale or two in my life. But, what's more important to me are my personal whales. These are beers that I'm after--still usually pretty rare--that might not necessarily be on someone else's whale list.

Beyond that, you have your white whales, your Moby Dicks, the ones that get away and, no matter how close you think you are to finally tracking them down, vanish. For five years that's what Bourbon Barrel Aged PumpCAN was to me (and it's what the rum barrel variant of it still is). Then, out of thin air, MadTree broke some beers out of their cellar last fall, BBA Pumpcan among them. My white whale had returned from the dead. A ghost, one that I managed to trap, one that's been haunting my cellar since.

Today, on All Hallow's Eve, I'm tearing into this ghost whale. Let's see if it lives up to the hype I've built around it.

It just feels like Halloween today, you know? Besides the grey overcast sky, the brilliant autumn colors alighting the trees, and the crisp breeze on the 50-something degree day, I mean. Tonight Michelle and I are carving our pumpkins while watching Hocus Pocus. Spooky.

So, to keep the Halloween convoy that is today's activities a-trucking, I figured I might as well do up my next post of the month. This is a beer I've had before (I bought it on a whim when it dropped the other month--late-August, I think). I haven't had it since but, if I'm remembering correctly, it's something pretty special. Today I'm cracking into Erie Brewing Company's Johnny Rails.

It's raining. They sky's a slate gray. Crows are cawing. Flaming orange and rusty yellow leaves are falling. There's a definite chill in the air. Yeah, this is officially the Halloween season.

This is the kind of fall day I absolutely adore. What better way to revel in the autumnal vibe of it than to crack into the next pumpkin brew I was planning to discuss here? Without further fanfare, here we go: Whole Hog's Pumpkin Ale.

Has it really been three years since I've talked about Sam Adams on here? I guess so. There's a reason why that is and, by the end of this post, you might just guess what that reason is. 

Anyway, it's officially October now, so I can begin my month-long discussion of pumpkin beers/cider(s)/seltzer without getting grief for it. Because, whether you love all things pumpkins spice or hate it, it's in-season starting today.

I'm kicking off the festivities with a beer I've had before, one that I think'll set the bar for the rest of the month. That beer is Samuel Adams' pumpkin offering for 2020: Jack-O.

It's the week of Halloween! This means, very unfortunately, that Spooky Finger Puppet Ghost Month 2019 is on its lonely way to the gallows. But, fear! October 2020 will be here before we know it, gnashing its teeth and ready to avenge its horrible comrade.


Before this year's legs stop kicking, however, there are still two beers to get through. Today's is one that I wasn't expecting to include when I first started gathering brews for the blowout. But, luck was on my side and my local bottleshop got a few bottles in. Today's pumpkiny, Halloweeny beer is Warped Wing's Bourbon Barrel Aged Flying Heads.

Today was exhausting. Luckily for me it was the good kind of exhausting--the kind that reminds me of why I wanted to get into my line of work in the first place. So, in honor of that, tonight's spooky beer will be one of celebration.


Please, come along with me on this haunted evening as the witching hour draw ever nearer. Tonight, we break into a horrifying beer; one that reminds us of the reason for this nightmarish season. Now that the sun has set and the moon is on the rise, we experience it: The Fear.

Today's beer is one that I was excited to find in the wild. Back when I used Facebook (which wasn't too far back--I only gave up on it last month) (I still manage the blog's Facebook page, however) I saw a post about this ale in one of the beer groups I frequented. Someone had posted,  asking what Halloween/pumpkin ales others would recommend. One response had many more likes than the others: the rum barrel-aged offering from Two Roads, Roadsmary's Baby.


Intrigued, I hopped over to Untappd to see where I might be able to find it in my area. To my chagrin, I found that the ale wasn't distributed in Cincinnati (one comment on the aforementioned Facebook post clued me into this, but I guess I just wanted to see for myself).

Knowing this, imagine my surprise when, walking through my local bottleshop/international market, I found a sixer of the stuff! I grabbed it without a second thought. I'm happy to finally give it a go here and see if it lives up to the hype generated by that post.

Today's been a dark and rainy October day. I've spent the majority of it marathoning Ghost Adventures (or, mimicking how a music theory instructor in my undergrad introduced it to me, Ghost Bros). This show is the absolute best at being the absolute worst ghost-hunting show on TV. Guys who could be ex-frat dudes wearing Tapout shirts screaming "Come at me, bro!" to whatever spirits they think are around? I mean, come on.


But, it's been a hell of a great way to while away a nasty day while getting me into a spooky mood. I'm looking to double dip into that mood right now with this review: Josephsbrau's Howling Gourds Pumpkin Ale.

Today is the first autumn day that actually feels autumnal. When I took Lottie out this morning, I was compelled to throw on a hoodie because it was 54°. Can you believe it? Better yet, the forecast isn't showing anything above the 70°s for the next few weeks (it's refusing to show me anything further than that). What a spectacular day to put up my second Spooky Finger Puppet Ghost Month post!


For your frightful pleasure today, I'll be discussing Ellicottville Brewing Company's (EBC from now on) addition to the wide array of pumpkin beers: Pumpkinville Latte. Let's find out if it's up to the blog's spooky standards.

We've made it to Halloween night which, on the blog, marks the finale of Spooky Finger Puppet Ghost Month. It's been a gloomy Halloween, which may be why we haven't heard a single knock on our door tonight. Michelle and I weren't sure we'd get many trick or treaters here anyway, which means that now we have to eat all the candy I bought for tonight by ourselves. Bummer, I guess. (I did see a family across the street before the rain started in force, but it guess the downpour scared them inside.)

Each day brings us further into fall, and closer to the end of Spooky Finger Puppet Ghost Month. Today, the sun is shining brightly outside of my living room window but, just last night, as the wind was howling a a driving rain was battering the side of my house, I watched a few episodes of a spooky new ghost show and found myself in a downright Halloweeny mood.


Sun or no sun, I'm still feeling the spirit of the season. So, I thought that I'd push through this post today instead of waiting until next Sunday, which was my original plan. Today I'm drinking Rogue's Pumpkin Patch Ale.

In late September of last year, my brother gave me an early birthday present. It was a beer in a box. Well, okay, a bottle of beer in a box. But, the box wasn't a shoebox or a typical gift box; no, this box was designed to be an extra level of packaging by the brewery responsible for the beer it contained.

It's 85 degrees here and feels like 90. I'm sitting out on my porch with my Mac open and my shirt off. This is not what I imagine October 6th to be like. Instead of drinking a heavy autumnal ale, this weather makes me want some ice cream.


It's super lucky, then, that today's beer was produced in collaboration with an ice cream company. Today's beer, Braxton's Graeter's Pumpkin Pie, was purchased through Lil Chet's support on my Ko-fi page. Thanks, Lil Chet! Like its name implies, Braxton worked with Graeter's (the folks behind the ice cream) to make this special fall seasonal. How does it hold up to the pedigree from its creators?