Meet the Girls Behind “Rate My Pumpkins”, 2 Girls Obsessed with Pumpkin Beer!

A random evening on Facebook and a friend sent me an interesting link to look at… ratemypumpkins.com. Two girls that made it their mission to rate every pumpkin beer they could get their hands on.

Basically my new BFFs, right?!

Looking at their website I have seen an impressive amount of pumpkin beers with some respectable and hilarious commentary about each one. I know you guys will love them as much as I do.

Plus there gonna dish their FAVORITE pumpkin beers. So sit back, relax and let them make your pumpkin beer shopping list right about NOW… and learn about the ladies behind Rate My Pumpkins.

Alexandra Dietrich and Nicola Chamberlain were roommates before Nic got herself hitched, when walking home one night they decided they were gonna drink as many pumpkin beers are they could that year! How many and how would they start? They decided on drinking one per day from September 1st until Halloween! That is 61 pumpkin beers per year. But Nicola knew they were up for the challenge, “…we realized that would be 61 if we tried one a day between Sept 1st and Halloween, but even with that daunting number in our heads we are both way too stubborn to balk from a challenge, ha. And so it began…” 

How did you guys come to love craft beer so much? 

Nicola: I had been craft-curious and trying as much variety as possible since moving to the US in early 2008, but around the time we started RateMyPumpkins it really took off for me. As we spent our free time trolling around liquor stores and bars in the local area and further afield looking for the next interesting pumpkin, I also would pick out other craft beers of different types that appealed, often for very different reasons.

Alexandra: I had spent a summer in Belgium and discovered life beyond Bud Light there in the form of Delirium and Brugse Zot making me realize that I had been wasting time on undrinkable swill. I didn’t really start drinking craft beer until we started @ratemypumpkins and were hunting down beers from breweries I had never heard of before. Now, I can’t go back!

How do you choose which beers to rate? 

Nicola: We try to go for a mix of new beers and old favorites, and include popular ones that we know we will be asked about commonly. For us the new ones are obviously exciting, but it’s also cool to revisit our favorites each year and see how they are holding up, as well as check out any recipe changes for ones we have previously tried. The first year was a real challenge to get to 61, now, thanks to the popularity of the style and the inventiveness we are seeing with different sub-styles, it can be a challenge to make a cutoff at just 61!

Alexandra: There are many factors. In our first year, it was a matter of survival. Whatever we could get we wrote about because 61 pumpkin beers and ciders didn’t distribute in MA at the time. In the past four years, many breweries have either added a pumpkin to their line-up making finding them easier, but now breweries contact us to review their beer and hold it up against the others if we haven’t featured it yet. We always want to try new ones, revisit old favorites to see year to year changes in their recipes, and we attempt to avoid the truly wretched ones that we’ve already sink-poured in past years, if we can help it.

Out of the MANY pumpkin beers you tried, which stand out the most and why?

Nicola: For good reasons, I have a few standouts. For a traditional pumpkin ale, with pie-like quality, Schlafly’s Pumpkin is a complete winner. It is so well spiced and balanced, an absolute delight. Outside of the traditional, I love pumpkin stouts and porters, with Alaskan Brewing Company’s Pumpkin Porter, and the 21st Amendment/Elysian Collaboration He Said Pumpkin Baltic Porter being fantastic examples.

In terms of standing out in a bad way, the one I have dreaded year on year is still Shipyard’s Smashed Pumpkin (and, even WORSE, Barrel Aged Smashed Pumpkin). It seems to be a real “marmite” beer, people either love it, or hate it. For me, it’s a palate wrecking, cloying, over-spiced almost perfume of a beer. I think I once likened it to the contents of a drip-tray after a pumpkin beer fest. I stand by that.

Alexandra: Anything that is an atypical style for pumpkin beer immediately pops out. 21st Amendments He Said Belgian Tripel and Baltic Porter were inventive and delicious. Every year, Cape Ann Brewing brews both a pumpkin stout and an Imperial pumpkin stout – both are creamy, delicious, and would compete with non-pumpkin stouts anywhere. Of course, Pumpkin IPAs stand out as a hard category to rate as generally you can’t taste the pumpkin, but often they are great IPAs. Does this make them a fantastic pumpkin beer? It’s a grey area that Nicola and I debate every year.

What NEW pumpkin beers are you looking forward to trying?

Nicola: New for this season I’m looking forward to (post-baby!) trying Ballast Point’s Pumpkin Down, a Scottish ale with pumpkin. I am a big fan of a lot of their beers so have high hopes for when I eventually get to try it. Alex is also saving me some Downeast Cider’s Pumpkin Chai Cider, I’m hoping I like it as much as she did. Finally, new to me but around for a while, I hope to get to try a Cigar City Good Gourd at some point. This has become a bit of a white whale for me…

Alexandra: I cannot wait to try Wicked Weed’s Xibalba, an Imperial Pumpkin Ale brewed with cacao nibs and chiles, Slumbrew’s new pumpkin beer, and Almanac Brewing’s dark pumpkin sour, which isn’t new but is new for me. One that I couldn’t wait to try was Downeast Cider’s Pumpkin Blend Cider made with chai tea. It was well worth the wait.

Pumpkin Spice Rim? Yes or No?

Nicola: Unless I am drinking something absolutely awful, with no other choices, then definitely no. A great pumpkin beer should be spiced well enough, and stand alone by itself. Also, sticky hands, ugh

Alexandra: Never. If I want sugar, I’ll eat a damn cookie. I’m a purist, though. Coffee, black; whiskey, neat; beer, without frills, baubles, and tiaras.

When not enjoying pumpkin beers, what styles of beer are your favorites?

Nicola: Year round I’m a big IPA and pale ales fan, unashamedly leaning towards big, citrusy hop flavors. I also love a great robust Porter, especially in the fall or winter time. Hot summertime afternoons will often find me clutching a Radler or a Gose, or a cider for variety. But I absolutely love to try anything new, so mashup styles or new interesting ingredients will draw me to try them more often than not. Also, being English, a traditional ale, especially on cask, will often grab my eye.

Alexandra: Farmhouse ales, stouts, and sours make my rocking world go ’round, but I’m never above ending the night with a tall boy of Narragansett. Sometimes you needs something made on honor and sold on merit.

Do you both have a clear favorite??

Nicola: I’m not sure what Alex will say for this one, but I’m pretty sure she’ll expect me to say Schlafly Pumpkin Ale. She’s right, but just to annoy her I’ll go outside the traditional pumpkin ale, and say Elysian Brewing Co. Dark O’ The Moon Pumpkin Stout. I honestly have cravings for that beer.

Alexandra: I think Schlafly Pumpkin Ale or Steven’s Point Whole Hog are my hands down favorites. Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale is a solid spice master for when I need the classy old man of pumpkin beers.

Okay, I just gotta ask… How many pumpkin beers have you drank??

Nicola: Oh geez, great question. At this point, I have lost count. There are usually many beyond 61 each year now. I’d have to guess going on for a couple hundred originals easily. Though with me being pregnant this season, and unable to rate the new crop for this year, Alex has definitely bested my total now!

Alexandra: After four years, many off-season pumpkin brews, and pumpkin beer festivals where I don’t review everything I imbibe? At least more than 200 and counting. That’s a lot of orange.

Make sure to check them out:

website- www.ratemypumpkins.com
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