Southern Tier Brewing

Every fall I look forward to the release of Pumpkin Ales. There are quite a few on the market now, more and more every year in fact, so I'm always excited to try one I haven't had before. Today I've got a bottle of Southern Tier Pumking. I've heard a lot of good things about this beer but I've only recently gotten my hands on a bottle of it. The packaging is a little menacing, it's got a sneering Jack-o-lantern on the front wearing a Southern Tier Imperial Series crown while black and orange bats fly around the bottle. At 9% ABV this is the strongest Pumpkin Ale I've seen on shelves and I'm anxious to dive right in.

Southern Tier's Cherry Saison sounded good at first. I mean, who doesn't like a Saison? On top of that, who doesn't like Cherries? Then again, cherries in a beer... maybe that doesn't sound so good after all. If there is one style of beer that could pull it off though, it'd probably be the Saison (or a wheat). After few small pieces of homemade Pizza Margherita I decide to pour a glass of the Cherry Saison. I was pleasantly surprised. This beer ended up being far more well balanced than I'd thought. Not only is this a Saison brewed with cherries but it's been aged with French oak. And that oakiness is pretty apparent when you take your first sip...