And now, a brief interruption to Dogfish Month to say a few words about Wild Goose Pumpkin Patch Ale. I picked up a sixpack of this, mostly on a whim. I generally like Wild Goose beers. But I generally don't care much for pumpkin ales. If I'd read the label more closely and seen that it was spiced I probably wouldn't have bought it at all. Yet, it's really quite good. Neither overwhelmingly pumpkin-y or overly spiced. I'm actually rethinking my opinions on spiced beverages. If you'd asked me a month or so ago I'd have said that spiced (or flavored) beer was much worse than spiced (or flavored) coffee. But the Pumpkin Patch Ale is pretty damn good. And, more to the point, every single time (usually about once every month to six weeks) I've succumbed to temptation and tried some kind of flavored/spiced coffee (with the exception of iced vanilla latte), I've found it anywhere from unpleasant to impossible to actually finish the coffee. Spiced-type coffees always smell so good when they're brewing. But while I used to think that one sip was the best idea ever and one cup was the worst, I'm now coming around to realizing that spiced coffee, if not a whollly bad idea, it's just not for me. At all.
Flavored beer? I'm still thinking the Pumpkin Patch might just be the exception to the rule. But I'm less certain than before. However I'm definitely not ready for banana lambic