WSU vs. Oregon football: Baxter's beer of the game

Baxter had two instructions for me when picking out his beer of the game for the Cougs vs. Ducks: No Oregon beers and something seasonal (like the fresh hop beer he enjoyed last week). Now let me tell you, going to the beer store with a "No Oregon" policy is a difficult task. I don't know if you are aware, but there is a lot of beer that comes out of Oregon, and a lot of it is very good.

Fortunately, there is a bevy of beermakers in Washington as well. Today we are featuring one that likes to push the limits on what is considered a "beer" flavor by the masses: Epic Ales out of Seattle.

Now, just for clarification, there are two breweries that use the "Epic" name. One is out of Utah and Colorado, and has a larger footprint. Epic is a smaller outfit in the SoDo area of Seattle that specializes in farmhouse styles, sour beers and using a variety of fruit and other spices to create unique offerings.

When Baxter told me "seasonal", I thought three things: Oktoberfest, fresh hop and pumpkin ales. There wasn't a whole lot of Oktoberfest beers available at my local beer store, on account of the style actually being released sometime in August. Since Bax featured fresh hops last week, I decided "pumpkin" was the way to go.

There are generally two types of pumpkin beers. The first, and most common, is a beer that uses pumpkin pie spices. The other doesn't have much in the way of spice, but uses pumpkin as another sugar for yeast to munch on, giving a fuller body to the beverage.

Considering the beer this week is called "Pumpkin Pie Gose", I'm sure you can guess where it falls on the pumpkin beer spectrum.

But what caught my eye here was the "Gose" part of the equation. Goses (Goes-uhs) tend to be salty and tart or even sour depending on who is making it. How does a salty, tart, pumpkin pie sound? Sounds pretty good to me, honestly.

Baxter and I don't have a review this week, because I wasn't adventurous enough to buy two of these and try one before the game (also, there was a lone Fremont Beer 1000 left at the store, so that is where the majority of the day's beer budget went). I will say, Bax did enjoy a Lagunitas DoppelSticky on Thursday. So go out and get that if you like something else is a little different, but not quite "sour nutmeg".

So, it's a Pumpkin Pie Gose from Epic Ales for Bax and I as the Cougs visit Eugene. What will you be having?