American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
We like horror movies a lot here at American Craft Beer and obviously we enjoy serious beer. Which explains why we do this every year…
Great Lakes Nosferatu
Great Lakes brews a beloved fall seasonal that was named after, FW Murnau’s famous 1922 German horror film, Nosferatu. And it just bleeds Halloween.
From its truly alarming label, that depicts Count Dracula’s original incarnation, to its unforgiving deep ruby color, Great Lakes Nosferatu is an 8% ABV Imperial Red Ale that will haunt your taste buds long after Halloween.
Suggested Horror Movie Pairing: The obvious pick would of course be the original “Nosferatu” but Francis Ford Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” starring Gary Oldman and Keanu Reeves is a frightening take on the silent film classic with its own cult following.
Three Floyds Zombie Dust
Northern Indiana’s popular Three Floyds Brewing offers a year-round pale ale that with its haunting name, spooky label and “killer” taste has become the ‘go-to’ Halloween classic for many beer lovers in the Midwest.
Three Floyds Zombie Dust is a 6.4% ABV American Pale Ale that’s sure to attract hordes of beer zombies at any Halloween outing. And if you’re looking for a Halloween beer with serious ‘street cred,’ this is it.
Suggested Horror Movie Pairing: Train to Busan (Amazon Prime) but there’s also Black Summer on Netflix and World War Z on Amazon Prime
Southern Tier Warlock
While Southern Tier’s Pumking remains a widely popular Halloween staple, we prefer a much darker offering from the Lakewood, NY brewery at this time of year.
Brewed with fresh pumpkin, seasonal spices and the black roasted malt, Southern Tier Warlock Imperial Stout is an 8.6% ABV monster that will have you yielding to your dark side.
Suggested Horror Movie Pairing: Although there are three Warlock movies, 1989’s Warlock, 1993’s Warlock: The Armageddon and 1993’s direct-to-video Warlock III: The End of Innocence, you need to stick with the original.
AleSmith Evil Dead Red
A beer’s name is an intrinsic part of any Halloween beer. And AleSmith Brewing’s fall seasonal is not just frighteningly named, it’s frighteningly delicious.
Blood red and viciously hopped to balance out its crimson malt backbone, AleSmith Evil Dead Red is a fiendishly smooth Red Ale that’s instinctively evil and only brewed for the haunting season.
Suggested Horror Movie Pairing: The Evil Dead (how could we not?). The ultimate in grueling horror, The Evil Dead not only launched director Sam Raimi’s long and successful career, it remains one of the best haunted house (in this case a cabin) movies EVER.
Rogue Dead Guy Ale
Given that many credit the Rogue Ales original with being the first Halloween-themed craft beer, we’d be remiss to not give this classic its due.
Originally created more than twenty years ago by the pioneering Newport Oregon-based brewery, to celebrate the Mayan Day of the Dead, Rogue Dead Guy Ale is actually a fairly straight-forward German-style Maibock.
Just as with Three Floyd’s Zombie Dust, Dead Guy Ale has always been a year-round offering that the brewery quite intentionally markets around Halloween with occasional variations, like one that actually glowed in the dark!
Suggested Horror Movie Pairing: Beetlejuice. Directed by Tim Burton in 1988, this darkly comedic Halloween classic starring Michael Keaton is a gift that just keeps giving.
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