Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival and Blue Moon Pumpkin Ale

A few weeks ago the weather started to change and the air became a little crisper in the Silicon Valley. My mind began to dream of fall. I wanted wander through a pumpkin patch in a cozy sweater with my sweetheart. I told my daydream to my boyfriend, Michael, and he told me about the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival. I instantly wanted to go.

I have to warn about two things: this is not a beer festival and there are not that many actual pumpkins at this festival. But trust me, it is still worth the trip. It's more of an arts and crafts fair. There is everything pumpkin and fall related, with some other randoms things as well. We bought some cute Hawaiian decorations for our house (we met in Hawaii while attending the University of Hawaii at Hilo and want to decorate our home like where we fell in love). 

We also had some classic fair snacks, grilled corn on the cob with no butter for me and he got a sausage. 

And of course we had a few beers, pumpkin beer in fact! Blue Moon Brewing Company's Pumpkin Harvest Ale.  We both really enjoyed this beer. It's a lighter pumpkin ale. Not too spicy, but spicy enough. Not so pumpkin-y that it's heavy, but enough that you can still taste it. It was very refreshing, especially considering my dream of a cool fall day was in fact a unseasonably, upper 80's kind of day.

We also got the awesome official festival beer mugs. They have a new design every year. I overheard a guy said he collected all of the the past 25 years. I think Michael and I have a challenge now! We will definitely being going again next year and I am going buy a some Pumpkin Ale next time I am at the store.