Tag: elysian

Pumpkin beer season is upon us; that means it’s Elysian’s time to shine

Elysian’s pumpkin pack covers everything from ale to coffee to stout. Is it worth rolling the dice on a finicky flavor?

Elysian Brewing was born in Seattle. But as fall kicks into full swing, you won’t find anything approaching the Pumpkin Spice Latte flavor fellow Washington juggernaut Starbucks has developed into a national frenzy in their beers.

Pumpkin, sure. Hell, they’ve got four nationally distributed pumpkin beers ranging from ales to stouts and crushable to heavy. But there’s no pie-adjacent, sugary-sweet brew amongst their flagship beers despite the neverending rising tide of pumpkin spice … everything. That’s on purpose.

“Starbucks has a reputation as a soccer mom, SUV type drink,” founder Joe Bisacca told me midway through a pumpkin beer tasting session. “I think Elysian’s vein is more ’72 [Dodge] Challenger. There’s a little more edge to it. Latte inspired? Maybe, but we’ll put a twist on it that’s a little more edgy.”

That doesn’t mean there aren’t spiced beers in the company’s portfolio. Crack open a bottle of Night Owl Pumpkin Ale and you’ll get plenty of cinnamon and nutmeg right from the first whiff — it just won’t be Starbucks sugary, and it will be unmistakably Elysian. It also doesn’t mean those sweeter beers don’t exist at all — just that their distribution is limited to the brewery’s annual Great Pumpkin Beer Festival.

“We do 10-12 pumpkin beers each year to fill out Pumpkin Fest,” Cellermaster Dan Beyer said. “We go as eclectic as one can — a straight up PSL clone is not unheard of. You’ll hear multiple instances of “latte” in our Pumpkin Fest lineup this year.”

That’s great if you’re in Washington to help bartenders drain a hollowed-out, 1,800-pound gourd on the festival grounds. You’ll also get to try guest brews in styles like pumpkin pickle beer, cinnamon roll stout and apple cobbler ale — two-thirds of which sound pretty good.

But if you’re, say, stuck in Wisconsin your options are limited to Elysian’s core four pumpkin beers. And while I’m wishy-washy on the topic — there are so many ways to do pumpkin ales and every brewery’s take is different, leading to a wild variation even before you get to overall quality — I’d be remiss if I didn’t tuck into this year’s pack from a trusted brewer.

Let’s see how it tastes.

Beverage of the Week: Elysian teamed with Chucky to make a murder beer (and also pumpkin stuff)

Elysian got ready for spooky season with a Chucky cranberry wit to pair with their normal pumpkin stuff. Some of it’s good. Some is not.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

I’ve chronicled no shortage of Elysian beers here, and for good reason. They’re typically awesome. The company behind Space Dust IPA has been aggressive with its expansion from the Pacific Northwest to the rest of the country, rolling the dice in new markets in an attempt to become a household name among craft brewers.

That boldness applies to Elysian’s brewing process as well. When they want to go wide, they come up with a mass-appeal wheat beer perfect for Seattle Seahawks games. When they want to whittle that focus group down to a specific few they’ll give you an IPA so danky it’ll make whatever room you’re in reek like weed the moment you crack a can.

This year, they’re taking their fall offerings — a pretty solid mix of pumpkin beers ranging from light ales to stouts — and experimenting again. My most recent mailer from the brewery contained three brews; their Night Owl Pumpkin Ale, the Mr. Yuk Sour Pumpkin Beer and Chucky: A Killer Wit Beer. The latter is a collaboration with the SYFY series based around the star of the Child’s Play film franchise and features his Jon Gruden-esque mug front and center on the can.

Elysian also offered journalists the opportunity to do a virtual tasting with its founders, which was a nice touch. Here’s how each beer went down and whether or not you should seek them out here in the tail end of the spooky season.