Prost to fall: 13 fall beers ranked from worst to best
Prost to fall: 13 fall beers ranked from worst to best
If you’re over 21, here’s what you should be drinking in Syracuse this fall.
Fall is upon us and pumpkin spice everything is out and thriving!
And don’t let them fool you or shame you, pumpkin spice is for everyone! The coffees, the pumpkin bread, the cakes, the pies, the cocktails, the cookies – to repeat – pumpkin spice everything.
But what about a pumpkin spice beer? Or apple flavoured beer? What makes a beer a “fall” beer?
Scott, a bartender at Willow Rock Brewing Company said it all has to do with the malt and not about the spices.
“Usually the malt profile is a bit maltier,” Scott said. “The malts are sweeter, roasted a little more and that produces more of a dark beer… you can still spice a light beer.”
With a little more research I learned that fall, or winter, beers are often brewed to be stronger. This is to account for the colder months, meaning the alcohol by volume, as shown on your beer can as “ABV”, in beers might go from 5% to 9%, but not crossing that 10% threshold that would make it a wine.
There is no exact definition of a “fall” beer, it could be the spices, the malt, or the inclusion of pumpkin. But I’m not here to tell you exactly what a fall beer is, I’m going to tell you what I think you should drink this fall on my personal scale of “fallness.”
I went to five different breweries and bars across Syracuse and tried some beer. Here’s a list of 13 fall beers, ales and ciders ranked worst to best.
13. 1911 Haunted Hayride
Beak & Skiff 1911 Established
6.9% ABV
Rating: 1/10
Front and center on the can of this herbed, spiced and hopped cider, it is described as being “pumpkin pie in a can” and “pumpkin spice and everything fright” and it is very frightful.
The spicy halloween cider smells and tastes like someone boiled potpourri in a cider and then threw more spice in it.
I love 1911 ciders, I think they produce some of the best cider in upstate New York but this one was not a hit. This was barely drinkable, but I can’t deny that it is the drink that smelled the most “fall,” and that was sadly its biggest fault.
12. Sweet Potato Brown
Talking Cursive
5.7% ABV
Rating – 2/10
For a sweet potato yam beer that says it contains “100 pounds of yams,” I personally didn’t taste any. In fact there was no sweetness to the beer at all.
The drink tasted a bit bitter and smoky with hints of earthyness. For a beer called Sweet Potato Brown you would expect flavors of sweet potato and maybe brown sugar but alas, none.
It was very disappointing because a sweet potato tasting beer sounds perfect for fall, but this one was definitely not it.
11. Pumpkin Blend
Downeast Cider House
5.1% ABV
Rating – 2/10
On Downeast Cider’s website they say, “if fall were a drink, it’d be this.” I’d have to disagree with that.
Though there are tastes of citrus and apple, no pumpkin came through. For a cider with a nice orangy color, you’d be hoping for light and crisp but all you’ll get is something that’s thick, syrupy and smells like crawdads.
10. Honeycrip(y) – Prison City X Talking Cursive
Talking Cursive
4% ABV
Rating – 3/10
Now I was excited for this beer because an apple lager sounds great!
The promise of “honeycrisp apple juice” mixed in was disappointing for this beer that tasted bitter and spicy. The beer almost tasted like a sour beer, rather than an apple lager, and it was just very disappointing. I was expecting Busch Apple and it instead gave Snow White’s poison apple.
9. Oktoberfest (2025)
Talking Cursive
5.5% ABV
Rating – 4/10
A Marzen style beer, for those unfamiliar, is a special beer brewed because of the Oktoberfest traditions in Germany. Marzen means “march,” because these beers are traditionally brewed in March then stored in cool caves to then be served at oktoberfest celebrations, and that’s how the beer got its name.
This Oktoberfest wasn’t the worst, it just lacked flavor for a traditional German Marzen style beer. The expected flavors of toastyness, breadyness with balanced bitterness was missing. The beer was lacking a bit of that extra malty flavor, that would usually make me grimace at the taste.
8. Rhubarb Raspberry Pie
Talking Cursive
4.2% ABV
Rating – 5/10
This isn’t a bad fruited sour beer, just not in any way fall-like. You may think because of the flavor of rhubarb it would seem fall but it’s really more of a summer beer. I would recommend trying this beer, if you like sour beers, but maybe wait until summer comes back around.
7. Salted Caramel Apple
Blake’s Hard Cider
6.5% ABV
Rating – 6/10
This cider had a very light flavor, it was very sweet and refreshing but missed both the flavors of salted and caramel.
It kind of just tasted like a plain sweet apple cider with maybe a hint of salt on the backside. I would have loved for the caramel flavor to come through a bit more.
6. Maple Honey Cluster
BlackBird Cider Works
6.5% ABV
Rating – 6/10
This cider was very sweet, almost too sweet, and very accurate to its name. I personally would not pick this drink if any of the next five were also on tap but it was pleasant.
Besides it being almost sickly sweet, It had distinct flavors of both maple and honey, which is surprising because of them both being very different flavors. But again, the addition of two super sweet flavors to an already sweet cider, it was like drinking candy.
5. Hoi Hoi Hoi!
Willow Rock Brewing Company
6.4% ABV
Rating – 6/10
Another Marzen style beer but is marketed as brewed to be an oktoberfest lager. It did feel a bit lighter and crisper but still had that malt flavor.
This beer is very drinkable, it was smooth, tasted clean and very well done. However, I don’t know if it nailed the taste of a traditional Marzen.
4. Bear Ninja Cowboy: 2024 Lunar Outlaw
Willow Rock Brewing Company
9.6% ABV
Rating – 7/10
This imperial red ale is delicious but very strong and heavy.
It had a minimal smell but big flavor, the 9.6% ABV is definitely accurate for how strong the beer is. It had a sweet flavor and was a little syrupy with a mild hop bitterness. This beer is definitely bordering a barney wine because of its alcohol content, sweetness and thick rich flavor.
I don’t think I could drink more than 5 ounces because it kind of feels like drinking straight whiskey.
3. Rugged
Willow Rock Brewing Company
7.7% ABV
Rating – 8/10
This beer is not only one of the best scotch ales you’ll find, but one of the best beers, period.
The flavor profiles of this beer are exceptional, with a strong taste and malty clean finish, it is not only a great fall beer but the perfect winter beer. The ABV is at the perfect range to keep you warm but you can also enjoy two or three without being worried about consuming too much.
2. Samuel Adams Octoberfest
Samual Adams
5.3% ABV
Rating – 9/10
Yes, I know this seems basic.
I had not tried this Octoberfest before and it was shocking how good it was. If something is perfect and marketed as the perfect fall beer maybe they know what they’re talking about.
The beer was light and refreshing and had the perfect amount of hops and malty-ness but would be number one if it didn’t lack the ABV to be the perfect Oktoberfest.
1. Southern Tier Pumpking
Southern Tier Brewing Company
8.6% ABV
Rating – 9/10
Coming in at number one is the Pumpking!
The most pumpkin flavor from a beer I’ve ever had, I guess it’s called pump-king for a reason.
This was one of the only beers I tried that actually had a pumpkin flavor that came through and wasn’t too spicy or too bitter, but had the perfect balance of both. It has the perfect ABV for fall or winter, and a perfect simple clean taste that anyone could enjoy.
Prost to fall!
is a contributor for The NewsHouse.