Pumpkin Patch Ale

Review Date 11/9/2012 Last Updated 9/22/2025 By John Staradumsky

           

Hey Rogue? Just what the heck took you guys so long to make a pumpkin ale? That’s what I want to know. Pumpkin beers are among my very favorite styles of brew. They’re also an American original, dating back to the time of the Pilgrims. Pumpkins, of course, are native to North America, and hence were fair game to end up as a prime candidate for fermentation.

Witness this 17th century ditty:

If barley be wanting to make into malt,
We must be contented and think it no fault,
For we can make liquor, to sweeten our lips,
Of pumpkins and parsnips and walnut-tree chips.

Feel free to belt that one out in the middle of your Thanksgiving dinner this year. You’ll surely be the life of the party. Speaking of Thanksgiving, let’s get back to Rogue and their Chatoe Rogue Pumpkin Patch Ale. If you’re looking for a beer to enjoy this Thanksgiving (or Christmas, or anytime in between for that matter), you need look no further. That beautiful orange bottle will surely look good on your holiday dinner table, as well.

Rogue says:

The newest addition to the Chatoe Rogue series is Pumpkin Patch Ale, a beer made using fresh pumpkins grown in a patch that borders Rogue’s 42 acre hop yard. The pumpkins are picked, loaded into Rogue’s farm truck, driven immediately 77 miles to our brewery in Newport, quickly roasted, and pitched into the brew kettle to create a batch of Pumpkin Patch Ale.

Ingredients are listed as:

Rogue Farms Pumpkins, Great Western 2-Row, Carawheat, Weyermann Carafe Malts, Rogue Micro Hopyard Rebel Hops, Ginger, Cloves, Vanilla bean, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, Free range coastal water and Pacman Yeast.

Alcohol content is not listed on the bottle but the original gravity is listed as 14 degrees Plato; using the rule of four that would yield 5.6% by volume. Bitterness is mild at 25 IBUs (appropriate to the style). I paid $8.98 for a 750ML bottle at Total Wine.

Chatoe Rogue Pumpkin Patch Ale pours to a murky brown color with a thick creamy head formation and a spicy, pungent nutmeg nose. Taking a sip, I get lots of dry nutmeg and cinnamon spice all at once, vegetal stringy pumpkin beneath, chewy malt, with a decided dry spicy finish. As the beer warms, the ginger comes out at the beginning of the sip followed by a hint of clove. There’s caramel, too, and the vanilla comes out in the middle. The finish is perfectly balanced and dry from all the spice, too.

Really and truly one of the best pumpkin beers I have had, very much akin to a slice of pumpkin pie in a glass. Maybe the closest yet, I think. I absolutely love the way all the spices work with the caramel and especially the vanilla; if you threw a slice of rich pumpkin pie in a blender you might end up with Chatoe Rogue Pumpkin Patch Ale.

Not to be missed……

Update 10/12/2017: Chatoe Rogue Pumpkin Patch Ale is now simply known as Rogue Pumpkin Patch Ale, and it's mostly the same beer. I say mostly because it's now a little stronger at 6.1% alcohol by volume, with slightly different ingredients.

From the website:

Rogue Farms Dream Pumpkins; Rogue Farms DareTM, RiskTM, Carafa II & Crystal Wheat Malts; Rogue Farms Independent Hops; Orange Peel, Cinnamon, Cloves, Cardamom, Vanilla, Ginger & Nutmeg; Free Range Coastal Water & Pacman Yeast.

The malts seem a little different (not sure of the details on those Rogue malts), and orange peel is a new ingredient. The beer is still wonderful, however, so pumpkin pie like but with plenty of stringy pumpkin, thick with ginger and nutmeg and cinnamon and cloves and a touch of vanilla.  Wonderful, and about the same price, too, as I paid $9.49 for a bottle at Target.

Update 10/10/2019 Rogue Pumpkin Patch Ale on tap at Taco Mac! Special Beer Promotion (SBP) release! It's as wonderful as ever, rich with spice and meaty pumpkin flavor. I make it a point to enjoy this beer each fall, but this is my first time enjoying it in draft form. Ironically, it's less expensive this way than in the bottle, for me anyway. I can get a 25.4 ounce bottle at Target for $9.49, which works out to $.37 per ounce. A pint will run you $7 at Taco Mac, but I can get a 23-ounce Chancellor Mug fill for $9.30. Factor in the $2.50 credit I earn towards any future visit, and I actually pay $.30 an ounce for draft. Such a deal for what is one of my very favorite pumpkin beers of all.

Update 9/22/2025: After too many years not finding Rogue's wonderful Pumpkin Patch Ale here in Georgia, I got a can from Half Time Beverage. Rest assured, I still see Rogue beers here in Georgia, but mostly on tap at Taco Mac and not so much in  package stores. Rogue says on their website:

Pumpkin Patch Ale is made with whole pumpkins that we chop up and roast by hand. The hand roast allows us to caramelize the natural sugars exactly as we like, which when combined with a delicate balance of spices creates the signature flavor of our classic fall-themed brew. We know you'll appreciate the effort when you taste the difference roasting real pumpkins makes.

Ingredients:Pumpkins, 2-row, Munich, Carafa II, Crystal Wheat, Orange Peel, Cinnamon, Cloves, Cardamom, Vanilla, Ginger, Nutmeg, Sterling hops, Pacman yeast, water

I paid $6.49 for my pint can of Rogue Pumpkin Patch Ale from Half Time. Total Wine has it listed for $16.49 a 4-pack at their Greensboro, North Carolina location. They are at the moment out of stock however. This is less expensive per ounce than the old fifth bottles. I enjoyed my can on the annual Pumpkin Beer episode of The Lager Room Guys. I look forward to doing this show every year. The beer was as delightful as always, spicy and pie like and bursting with vegetal pumpkin flavor. The can is stamped WANNA CHAT TEXT 541-819-0449 CANNED 07/07/2025 on the bottom.

 

Glad I tried it?  T

Would I rebuy it??

 

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled, Canned

(D)=Draft





 

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