Ultimate 6er | Fall Preview

Fall is my favorite season. As a kid, fall was filled with great fun like hay rides, apple orchards, birthday parties and trick-or-treating. Today, I continue to love fall for other reasons—the temperature cooling, leaf colors changing and the emergence of flavors that just aren’t quite appropriate for the summer months.

Here’s an Ultimate 6er for the fall. I’m going to give a disclaimer: Some of these are bombers and not 12-16 oz. beers and some are quite expensive. Saying that, if you can get your hands on any of these fine beers, jump at the opportunity.

Avery Rumpkin

The much sought-after pumpkin beer made in limited quantities by Avery of Boulder, Colorado is, in my opinion, the pumpkin beer of the season. I could easily just put together a list of pumpkin beers and call it a fall 6-pack, but that would be too easy and would not encapsulate the variety of flavors and aromas in the fall. So I stand with this one, rare pumpkin beer and trust that you will not be disappointed.

Surly Bender

This Minnesota-made brown ale is everything one would want a brown ale to be. The dark color looks good next to your pecan pie and the flavors of chocolate and coffee do not disappoint.

Rogue XS Old Crustacean Barleywine

Also called the cognac of beer, barley wines have gained a reputation for their strength and heaviness on the palate. Some may call this a winter beer, but I think it suits a fall night quite fine. Rogue’s XS Old Crustacean is an American-style barley wine that has a bit more hop than their English counterparts. I would love to tell you exactly what this beer tastes like, but I have been cellaring it for nearly a year and wait in anticipation for the perfect night to drink it.

Firestone Walker Parabola

Here’s another expensive one, but definitely worth the investment. This bourbon-barrel aged stout is heavy, smoky, with robust flavors of coffee and chocolate and whiskey. When I had this beer, it was in front of a campfire drinking out of a plastic, stackable bowl because we lacked cups. At that moment, this bowl was a very appropriate serving glass.

Green Flash Le Freak

Fall isn’t only about dark, malty beer. Greenflash from San Diego puts together a mighty fine beer when they combine the styles IPA and Trippel to form Le Freak. This beer offers more complexity than the average hop-bomb. As the flavor in this beer moves from fruit and spices to hops and more hops, IPA drinkers will be challenged to pick apart the flavors. I think this would go well with a pork roast and apples.

Hacker-Pschorr Original Oktoberfest Amber Märzen

Now I just can’t forget one of the biggest beer events that takes place in the fall—Oktoberfest. I would recommend getting your hands on a true German Märzen, though there are plenty great American Oktoberfest beers that can be had as well. This German brew is one of the top-rated Märzens that you can find in the US.

So, there it is! Roast some squash, make apple pie, and grab a good fall beer.

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