With fall seasonal brews arriving, beer drinkers can quickly snatch up newly available flavors to suit the changing weather either from a bar or a liquor store.
Harrison Sparks, a bartender at The Chimes Restaurant and Tap Room, said some customers purchase flavored seasonal beers when fall arrives, while others opt for heftier, darker beers. The restaurant kept about six Oktoberfest-themed beers, such as Samuel Adams Octoberfest, on its rotating drafts with about three similar bottled beers during October.
“The Oktoberfest beers are really popular whenever they come around,” Sparks said. “They all sold really well.”
He speculated people enjoy the change of pace, but he said though seasonal beers sell well, many customers stick with their traditional beverages.
“… It really just depends on the customer,” he said. “I pretty much drink the same thing year-round.”
Ultimately, The Chimes’ bar sells enough seasonal beer to continue to restock them. The bar currently has two Christmas-themed beers like Shiner Holiday Cheer, with more to come, but it’s Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale that has proved one of the most popular.
“We kept getting it back, but when we did, it didn’t last long,” Sparks said.
Cuban Liquor owner Mark Suchanek said most brewers make Oktoberfest and Fall Festival beers that prove popular, and many brew other flavors like cinnamon, pumpkin and coffee. But pumpkin has been particularly in-demand.
“This year was crazy,” Suchanek said. “A lot of pumpkin beers have been huge sellers.”
Seasonal beers aren’t the only drinks that grow popular in fall and winter.
Blaine Nauck, the residential home brewing expert at Marcello’s Wine Warehouse, said people are largely attracted to more substantial beers as the colder weather sets in, citing beers like the darker Sierra Nevada Tumbler. He likened the change in popular beers to the changing colors of leaves during fall.
“It’s got to have some body, it’s got to be a little richer — but not too much,” Nauck said. “It’s all about stuff that’s warm and inviting. … People like something that sticks to the bone.”
Suchanek also noted that those darker beers are easier to drink in cooler weather.
“Some of those super heavy dark stouts you can’t drink when it’s 100 degrees outside,” he said.
