Kick is a collaboration pumpkin ale from Elysian Brewing and New Belgium Brewing and is released under New Belgium’s Lips of Faith series—and as such it is more than just another pumpkin beer. It is, in fact, a pumpkin and cranberry sour ale, 8.5% alcohol by volume, blended with wood-aged beer so that 75% is the pumpkin cranberry, and 25% is the wood-aged sour.

Understandably, it is one of the most unusual pumpkin beers I’ve yet come across so it had to make my list.

Appearance: Orange-ish with a pink shade to it, a slight haze, and a white head that’s a bit loose.

Smell: A touch of tart with the barest hint of funk; fruity-tart; a sweet squash note. Honey, a touch of mustiness.

Taste: A cranberry juice tartness up front interwoven with a musty tart character (which could be fruit skins, or wood). In the back there’s a sweet character that is kind of caramel and kind of vegetal. Definitely has sour-wild character but it’s very subtle; I could see aging in a giant pumpkin (instead of a barrel) with a touch of Brett.

Mouthfeel: On the thin side (thinking cranberry juice again) with a complex, tart finish, lingering.

Overall: Different for a pumpkin, but with a nice fruity sourness to it. I like the pumpkin here, though it does take some getting used to. I like it.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B+. On RateBeer, it scores 3.52 out of 5 and is in their 94th percentile.