Pennsylvania has many great breweries, but one of our favorites is Easton’s Weyerbacher. Going into its19th year of operation, the outfit makes beers that take chances with flavor without sacrificing drinkability. The annual Anniversary series beers are worth taking a trip out of your way each June. (Our schedule didn’t allow it this year, but last year’s lemon, orange, grapefruit peppercorn Anniversary XVII was spectacular — not at all the citrus soda those ingredients might imply, just a delicious, light refreshing brew.) In general, Weyerbacher brews tilt toward high alcohol content, and the company may be a little over-invested in IPAs, but we’ve never had a bad bottle.

Weyerbacher’s entry in the fall seasonal market is an Imperial Pumpkin Ale. We may have reached peak pumpkin: after sampling about a dozen flavored ales — from Timmerman Pumpkin Lambic (too sour) to Buffalo Bill America Original Pumpkin Ale (tasted like a fizzy pumpkin soup) to Rivertown Pumpkin Ale (notes of chicken pot pie) — we confirmed the hunch. Weyerbacher’s is one of three or four consistently tasty comforting flavored pumpkin beers.

The jack o’lantern on the label wears a crown and in its vine clutches a scepter, but the important part here is the spice listing: cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and cloves. The beer pours golden to dark brown with a thin head and good bubbling. Unlike other pumpkin beers — which inexplicably give off a scent of ambrosia (not the nectar of the gods, the Thanksgiving marshmallow-coconut-canned orange dish) — we got notes of cantaloupe and cloves.

That cantaloupe flavor continues when you taste, then eases into a mild pumpkin pie flavor. We happen to love the taste of cardamom and cloves, so when we saw this beer in the store before Labor Day, we didn’t feel affronted by marketing insisting on a premature end to summer (though we realize many like to complain on that tip).

Imperial Pumpkin is tasty from beginning to end. If the store is out when you get there and you have to have some squash, Rogue Pumpkin Patch Ale is just as good if on the richer side, Southern Tier Pumking is fun (though not unlike drinking a can of pie filling), and O’Fallon’s Pumpkin Beer is probably the most drinkable alternative available. As far as alternative seasonal varietals goavoid Indigo Imp’s sweet potato beer but seek out Barrier Saazsquash, made with butternut.

Imperial Pumpkin pairs well with deli roast turkey. We look forward to trying it with Halloween candy, and then again with cranberry and stuffing. If you plan to do that, make sure to pick it up soon — stores have less and less of it each time we look.