Book ended by separate satellite Pumpkin Beer Crawls in The Tour's Boston birthplace, The Fifth Annual Pumpkin Beer Tour was a fabulous monstrosity and the supreme pumpkin beer event of the decade. Buoyed by an unprecedented 13 pumpkin beers from eight states, a pot luck smorgasbord, and a monumentally groundbreaking vertical tasting this year's event was The Tour to End All Tours.

As we did in 2008, this year's tour gathered pumpkin beers from across the country and showcased them in the Wallingford living room of Yours Truly. After signing in, each of the 29 guests was given an Informational pamphlet chronicling the various available beers, five tickets to vote as he or she pleased, a 4oz. taster glass, and a promise that the tastings were unlimited and no beer would run out. Indeed, the free-for-all tasting format punctuated the individual enjoyment structure of the event guarenteeing maximum tipsiness and beer consumption pleasure.

Six hours after it began, it was time to empty Das Boot, which was securely holding the voting tickets, and tally the scores. Hilariously, our crack squad of auditors consisted of the two tipsiest people in the room. No matter, Matt and Yours Truly turned a blind eye to the various lobbying campaigns and did our duty, eventually reaching a spectacular verdict: the 2009 Pumpkin Beer Tour champion was Big Time Brewery's Hopgoblin Pumpkin Ale.

The announcement proved a glorious moment for the first time entrant and native Seattle brewery. However, the Hopgoblin's shining moment was nearly eclipsed by two other revelatory discoveries.

The first surprise was the declaration that of the 13 participating brews last year's champion, Elliott Bay Mashing Pumpkin finished last with only one vote. It was a shocking fall for the excellent brew but not altogether impossible to believe given its similarity to this year's winner, Hopgoblin. Indeed, it was more than one reveler that noted Mashing Pumpkin as a less satisfying Hopgoblin.

The second revelation, and surely the most heart breaking, was the announcement that last year's runner-up, Southern Tier Imperial Pumking Ale, "the liquid caramel sensation," was again voted second best. Always a bride's maid never a bride, or as I put it in my ever increasing tipsy state, "it's the type of brew everyone's happy to roll in the hay with, you just might not want to bring it home to Mom." Or something like that.

In all this year's Pumpkin Beer Tour was a fond reminder of how far pumpkin beers have come the past five years. Indeed, in 2005 pumpkin beers were a novelty, difficult to find, and virtually unheard of in layman circles. Today, they are one of the pre-eminent signs of autumn as well as a highly respected and delicious part of beer's long and wonderful history.