It’s that time of year again…it’s pumpkin season! Once Labor Day comes and goes (sometimes before), almost everything has a pumpkin variety. This includes coffee, pastries, ice cream, and even beer. It seems like more and more companies produce a pumpkin flavor beer each year, but we’ve tried a lot and would like suggest one of our favorite pumpkin beers – The Traveler Beer Company’s Jack-O Traveler.
About the Brewer
Based in Vermont, The Traveler Beer Company specializes in craft shandys. The company’s feeling on the booming craft beer scene was that there were a lot of IPAs available but not many shandys. With this in mind, the brewery came out with shandys of many different flavors such as lemon, ginger, grapefruit, and strawberries. You can find the lemon (Curious Traveler) and grapefruit (Illusive Traveler) year round while the other flavors are either seasonal or were only limited releases.
About The Beer
Jack-O Traveler is darker in color due to it’s ingredients, but it is not considered a heavy beer. It’s ingredients includes real pumpkin with touches of lemon and cinnamon. The aroma of Jack-O Traveler contains pumpkin spices, cinnamon, and slight hint of nutmeg. Due to the beer’s spices and ingredients, it does not have a bitter taste like a typical craft IPA. Instead, it has a sweeter taste that most shandy beers have. Other than the sweet pumpkin taste, the beer also has very light hints of lemon and cinnamon as well. Overall each sip is cool, refreshing, and mildly dry.
Quick Beer Facts
Malt Varieties: 2-row malted barley, malted wheat
Hop Varieties: Hallertau Hallertau
Special Ingredients: Real pumpkin
Alcohol: 4.4% ABV
BUs: 7
Would you like this beer?
If you enjoy Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy and also like the taste of pumpkin, then you will more than likely make this your go-to pumpkin beer each season. It will also serve as a nice transition from a summer beer to a fall beer. Jack-O Traveler has the mouthfeel of a shandy and a sweet taste of pumpkin that separates itself from a typical pumpkin spiced IPA. However, if you do prefer a more bitter tasting, hoppy beer that still has a pumpkin flavor, then you may want to try a Pumpkin Spiced IPA instead.
Jack-O Traveler is no longer on tap, we’ll let you know if it comes back!
