Drink your beer and eat your vegatables [sic]

The Great Pumpkin Beer Festival in Georgetown (Elysian Brewing, Oct 8, 2011, Seattle, WA)

On Saturday afternoon Jer and I went to a pumpkin beer festival. Of the six tastings that were included in my $20 admission, here were my favorites:

• Punk Rauchen, a Smoked Pumpkin Lager, from Silver City Brewery in Silverdale, WA. From the brochure: "Fresh pumpkin was smoked over apple wood for 6 hours then mashed with pale barley malt." I am a big fan of smoked porters and big flavors, so this was perfect for me.
• Hansel & Gretel Ginger Pumpkin Pilsner from Elysian Brewing in Seattle, WA. Nice and light. If you've ever had ginger beer and liked it, you'll know what to expect. The addition of pumpkin was a nice twist.
• Coche de Medianoche from Elysian Brewing. This beer was Jer's favorite and I've never had anything like it. From the brochure, "This beer is about the spicing--cinnamon, cumin, black pepper, pan-roasted guajillo chilies and two kinds of cayenne pepper--both the Indian and the super-fiery African, in moderation. There are also roasted pumpkin seeds in the mash." In short, this beer burned in a good way. It was like drinking a cajun Bloody Mary.

The only beer I didn't care for was Orange Manalishi from Elysian Brewery, but maybe I'm just not a fan of the Trappist beer style. It was too flat for me. Also, having only tried about six beers, my sample size is not very scientific. But there ya go.

If you have any interest in attending this festival next year, buy your tickets ahead of time. People waited as much as three hours to get inside. (We were not those people. I would've just left.)

And here's a photo of a sign advertising a local farmer's market. Spot the typo: