The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

CORGAN SEASON!!!

What's Corgan Season you ask!?  Why it's the time of the year that Pumpkin seasonal beers are around and allow for one of my favorite shots of all time to be enjoyed: The Billy Corgan and the Headless Horseman, or Corgan for short.  The Corgan is one of my seasonal twists on the  always delectable Irish Carbomb, I like to describe it as a pumkin pie explosion in your mouth.  Named after the Billy Corgan the lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins, and the Headless Horseman gracing the bottle of the Shipyard Pumpkinhead.  The recipe is as Follows:

Billy Corgan and the Headless Horseman
1/2 Shipyard Pumpkinhead
1/2 Shot Voyant Chai Liqueur
1/2 Shot Licor 43

In Carbomb Fashion pour 1/2 of a glass of Shipyard Pumpkinhead into a pint glass.  Fill the shot glass and bomb it into the beer and let the good times roll!  Seriously Corgan season is one of my favorite times of the year!  On the first day of Corgan season this year I gleefully grabbed a warm Pumpkinhead off of our first delivery and poured myself and my fellow manager a warm one and had a Corgan for breakfast (I later realized this was a bad idea, but hey Corgan season only comes once a year!...and this type of behavior is perfectly acceptable in my line of work, go ahead and try that at your job)

The first Corgan was created 3 years ago while playing around with seasonal drinks with two of my Co-workers Wesley Graham and Eddie Garton.  We were working on perfecting a Pumpkin Pie martini with Voyant and Licor 43 among other ingredients and were having trouble getting enough Pumpkin flavor.  I had the revelation to go the bomb route with the Pumpkinhead to get a ton of pumpkin flavor.  And so Corgan season was born, and has since been celebrated every fall at Sharab in gleeful fashion.

Speaking of Pumpkin Beers I figured I'd go off on a bit of a rant and review my top three of this season's product offerings.

It was hard to choose a favorite this season as there were some solid offerings on the market, but my top choice was the Southern Tier Pumking Imperial Pumpkin Ale.  I feel that this beer was the best rounded of the lot offering a great alcohol content of 8.8%ABV and plenty of seasonally spicy body with just the right amount of sweetness.  A 22oz bottle will run you around $6-$8, and will do the job pretty well.  Check out the rest of Southern Tier's awesome portfolio at www.southerntierbrewing.com.

My second Choice this year would have to be Dogfish Head Punkin Ale.  Its still a hefty brew tipping the scales at 7% ABV, but its a bit on the dry side, not quite as sweet as the Pumking with a little subtler notes of spice than the Pumking.  All and all this beer is great, it doesn't sit quite as heavy as the Pumking.  The fact that it is a bit drier and more subtle on the flavor gives it a lot more versatility in pairing it with food.  Its also nice that it comes in a 4-pack of 12oz bottles for under $10, allowing me to enjoy a beer without a solid buzz. Check out the rest of Dogfish Heads product offerings including one of my favorites the 120 Minute IPA at www.dogfish.com.

Third Place goes to the Shipyard's Pumpkinhead Ale.  It's not as heavy as the other two at a mere 5.1% ABV and its also significantly sweeter which makes it absolutely perfect for Corgans.  The notes of spice come through great with the sweetness and make this beer perfectly refreshing for a hot Florida October day.  The Pumpkinhead is by far the cheapest of the 3 coming in a 6 pack of 12oz bottles for under $9.  The one big problem with this beer is that it always leaves you craving another one, which makes it despite its lower ABV just as dangerous as the other two.  Check out the rest of The Shipyard's beers at www.shipyard.com.

And as always remember: beer before liquor, never been sicker.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Be sure to have a cold one with the Turkey and Football!

-Jules