Haunted House, Allagash Brewing Company’s long-standing seasonal brew, is a two-faced beer. We know both dark and hoppy ales, but we’re less familiar with the combination of the two, because this sub-style lacks the ubiquity of its parent styles. Merging the bitter coffee component of the former with the effervescent side of the latter is a difficult balancing act. Put one toe out of place, and either will be subsumed by the other, and throw the flavor out of whack.
Haunted House may be the go-to blueprint for how beer like this should taste, where herbal, floral notes hang around the deep malt base serving as the overall structure. And it’s part of a bigger trend in craft beer.
Every year, breweries knock out at least one or two special releases in homage to specific horror films or the spooky season as a whole. Fortunately, alternatives to the “pumpkin ale” standard exist, avoiding the usual fall barrage of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and allspice. There’s a brew to satisfy everyone’s cravings on Samhain. Take a bite out of our five recommendations below:
Nightmare on Brett
Freddy Krueger likes slaying teenagers in their sleep and cracking dad jokes from hell. Commemorating an S-tier slasher villain with a beer as lively as Nightmare on Brett may be a gag unto itself. The beer presents with surprising vivacity considering the time investment that goes into its production, including months of conditioning in whiskey and bourbon barrels.
It’s a tasting note worthy of any slasher movie: you can’t keep a maniac down, no matter how many times you kill ‘em. Nightmare on Brett calls to mind sticky molasses, cherries, dark berries, cocoa, and muted maltiness.
Let’s Turn On the Juice
Bad news for Beetlejuice fans: This one’s already sold out at Stellwagen. Blame Tim Burton for releasing Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
For the lucky folks who managed to get their hands on some, this 10.1 percent ABV brew is surprisingly easygoing on the taste buds. The hop profile is layered with a creamy smoothness, a blast of peach, crisp apple notes, and citrus. Structurally, the drink holds together with enough astringency to land in just the right places on the palate.
Nosferatu
One of these days, red ale will enjoy a mini-renaissance, enough to remind everyone that pale ale comes in colors other than straw. Sometimes it’s blood-red.
There isn’t a better style for expressing the imagery we associate with vampires, and there are few better arguments for this style than Nosferatu. The piney characteristics of a classic ale meet with the bready, malty characteristics of beers outside the ale family, like Märzen. Nosferatu looks great when poured, too, and the can’s vividly realized portrait of a horror icon is practically a necessity in the final stretch leading to Halloween.
All Hallow’s Treat
What is Halloween without candy? Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups’ are all-time favorite Halloween treat (look it up!), and chocolate and peanut butter play beautifully in a stout, which makes Ommegang’s All Hallow’s Treat a no-brainer for the holiday.
Yes, this beer drinks like a Peanut Butter Cup. But All Hallow’s Treat is also a marriage between the candy champion’s and the roasty malt native to the stout style. Imagine Nutella and Jif spread on together on dark toast. That’s All Hallow’s Treat. The bottom note of vanilla makes for a nice chaser, but it’s a bonus compared to the heights reached on the front end.
Ghost Emoji
We drink with our eyes first. Of course, the beer is more important than the label, even if that label glows in the dark, like Tree House’s Ghost Emoji. If you turn out the lights, it glows. Now that’s Halloween.
Tree House has pioneered hazy, hoppy, juicy IPAs in the Northeast for years. The substyle and the craze it spurred in the 2010s wouldn’t have happened without their contributions. But Ghost Emoji is a winner even with all that prestigious context. It has a honey cracker bite that complements the grassiness, alongside overarching notes of fresh mango and pineapple juice. Nothing to be scared about here.
