Autumn is pumpkin season, with an abundance of pumpkin spice food and drinks lining supermarket shelves to get you excited for the cooler weather. While many of these ( Starbucks PSL , anyone?) are delicious snacks, there are some that are worth skipping. One such skippable pumpkin spice item that's lining shelves is a pumpkin beer made by the usually solid Samuel Adams brewery .
Daily Meal taste-tested twelve different pumpkin-flavored beers and out of all the options we tried, this was by far the worst. The beer in question is the Jack-O Pumpkin Ale, and is, as you can probably guess from the name, a flavored ale. Unfortunately, the pumpkin doesn't quite work with this beer, with the fall flavors overpowering the brew and giving it an odd taste that doesn't allow the ale itself to shine through.
On top of that, the aroma is confusingly unlike pumpkin pie or beer at all, creating a brew that, while perhaps not hideous, is certainly not worth drinking. The problems with the Jack-O brew's flavor When you first sip on the Jack-O Pumpkin Ale, you'll be greeted with a strong flavor of pumpkin pie spices. At first, this might not seem like a bad thing, but as you continue drinking, those tasting notes start to drown out the beer and become too intense.
What's more, you won't pick up on any hoppiness. Considering ales tend to have a good kick of hops and plenty of nuance to their flavors, this leads to quite a disappointing brew. Beyond the intense taste of the pie spices in the br.