Hop Butcher for the World Zombie Hopsicle and Seven Island Brewery Zombie Beast 

• Mike Riedel

It's the time of year for spooky things—and even the marketing departments from local breweries are getting in on the fun. In October, the obvious beer style would be the tried-and-true pumpkin beers; it's the only time of year they're made, and every brewery has at least one. That said, I found some beers that are full of the Halloween spirit with no pumpkin at all, so instead we can focus on some more traditional and (non-traditional) spooky beers.

Hop Butcher For the World - Zombie Hopsicle: This ghoulish beer features Citra, Strata, HBC-630 & Nelson Sauvin-hops, a double IPA brewed with guava and strawberry. While it's technically a "milkshake" IPA, this 7.5 percent ale features no lactose for added sweetness.

Poured into a large tulip, it came out cloudy but bright orange, and not as turbid as I expected considering the style and what I have seen from other milkshake IPAs. But then I poured the rest of the can into the glass, and boom, a sudden, heavy swirl of cloudy, milky debris spiraled around the glass, while a thin white head shyly displays on top. Creamy orange, strawberry and vanilla comes off the nose at first, even before emptying the full can into the glass. Once it's at full strength, softened, aging guava and pink Starburst emerge. When given a vigorous swirl, rejuvenating the carbonation, huge, explosive, vibrant, fresh and absolutely seductive strawberry powerfully perfumes the glass.

Creamy strawberry-guava flavor comes across first, followed with a tangy zip. Tangerine and pineapple come next, and then, again, when fully poured, super-fresh strawberries take on a life of their own. Some high-quality custard flavor sturdily runs in the background. There is a yeast tang, but this is the price you pay to obtain these flavors and drink them as fresh as possible.

Verdict: Zombie Hopsicle does not have as thick a feel as it looks. The implied smoothie-like texture is as close as you can get; you can see how weird that might be, and also how that might create problems with the can. In any case, I'm glad this is still in beer territory, with a tingly medium feel and a semi-dry finish.

Seven Island Brewery - Zombie Beast: This macabre New England DIPA was made with Citra BBC, Krush, HBC 586 and HBC 630. This 8.0 percent ale is all IPA, and it pours a deep, super hazy honey golden color with a two-finger fluffy white head that recedes to a cap and collar. The nose is a delicious hoppy bouquet with definite Citra presence. It's hard to keep these numbered hops straight in my head, but there's wonderful passionfruit and mysterious floral notes in here that might be because of their addition. Fittingly, it smells juicy and hoppy.

The palate is big Citra. A huge pop of tangy sweet orange and some zesty bitter grapefruit; "tang" is definitely the appropriate word here. There's a grassy freshness in the background as well that invokes a subtle sense of unripe fruit, or the color green.

A little bitterness in the tail end builds slightly in the finish, but let's remember that this is a double IPA; I've had plenty of pale ales that were way more bitter than this. The ABV is detectable, but barely, while the mouthfeel is lush and creamy.

Verdict: This is an outstanding and memorable NEIPA. The balance—between flavor and drinkability, crispness and creaminess, juiciness and dryness—is stellar. I'll definitely seek this out again.

These beers were made for Beer Zombies, and are only available at the Beer Zombies locations in Las Vegas as well as Salt Lake City. They both come in 16-ounce cans.

As always, cheers!