False Start on the Pumpkin Team

As we all have heard by now, the football season is upon us. If you have not heard, then you may be living under a rock. Whether its July or December, you are bound to hear something about the NFL on SportsCenter. While it doesn't bother me or fellow NFL fans, it does bother those interested in other sports. Good luck hearing anything about soccer during football season.

With the arrival of football also comes the arrival of this season's pumpkin and Oktoberfest beers. Even as early as mid-August (about when I saw my first Sam Adams Octoberfest), we have seen the shelves covered in pumpkins and Oktoberfests. It seems that EVERY brewery has some form of a pumpkin beer and for good reason. They are wildly popular; Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head (www.dogfish.com) even claims that Punkin outsells every beer in their line-up. Similar to year-round coverage of football, I'm not complaining. As a fan of the fall seasonals, it does not really bother me, but some fans of other releases are outright protesting this sudden influx..

One potential issue with early seasonal releases is the possible expense of other beers. There is only so much shelf space in the world, and unless you have lots of floor space to stack beer (i.e. Total Wine), then you might have to take something off the shelf to stock pumpkin beer. Some of the big summer seasonals (i.e. SN Summerfest; Anderson Valley Summer Solstice; Bells Oberon) might have to be removed to make room. Avid consumers of these beer might have to wait another year. One beer store in Boone, North Carolina, Peabody's Beer and Wine Merchants (http://peabodyswineandbeer.com/), tackles this issue directly by marking summer beers down in price, which would be AWESOME for the summer beer lovers. By the way, if you ever get a chance to go to beautiful town of Boone, NC, home of Appalachian State University, check out Peabody's. One of the finest selections I have ever seen.

Secondly, a recent article from Yahoo Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/early-pumpkin-beers-brew-dismay-183740446.html), touches on these early releases, and even mentions the local Richmond Vietnamese cuisine and craft beer garden, Mekong. Owner, An, has vowed to hold off on all pumpkins until October. He, like many craft enthusiasts, rejects seasonal creep on moral grounds, proclaiming they should be with the season that applies (Fall) and not the end of another (Summer). Looking at the comments on this article and from Facebook, this appears to most people's biggest issue. They simply do not want to see the seasonal releases yet. Similar to how people get aggravated with Christmas music on November 1 through January 2.

Whatever the objections may be, it looks clear that seasonal creep (especially with Pumpkin beer) is here to stay. What is not clear is the implications. Could this be a developing trend for ALL popular seasonals? Are we going to see Winter Warmers in September? Are we going to reach the same fate as seasonal clothing (Summerwear in Winter; Winterwear in the Summer)? Is it just a fleeting concern that we wont care about on Octobere 1st? Who knows what will happen in the future, but until then I'll go enjoy some more Ichabod Crandal while watching the Redskins in the Super Bowl.