IHOP Rolls Out 'Pumpkin Pancake' Promotional Beer

Owing to our own rich history and present amenities, we here in Philadelphia do not usually envy New York City, although it would be nice to enjoy some playoff baseball right now. Through October, we might have to flip our attitude just a little, as select bars in the New York tri-state area are now serving IHOPS Pumpkin Pancake Stout, marking yet another news cycle entry for IHOP in what has become an interesting period of branding bravado.

We Promo Marketing scribes love wordplay, so we smiled upon seeing that the beer’s title plays on “hops,” but our admiration for the clever name soon gave way to curiosity over how the creation tastes. Having had their opportunity to quaff it since Sept. 29, end-users have been downing what a release calls a combination of “IHOP’s signature Buttermilk pancake batter mix with ingredients from its fall menu into a Keegan Ales’ stout.” Hey, we are impressionable consumers, too, so the fall typically gives us cravings for pumpkin goods, and this one might just force us to make the trip to one of the watering holes in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut that has the goodie on tap.

You’re welcome, mouths. Find it at https://t.co/sUtZutdehT pic.twitter.com/7yOOGZRfe6

— IHOP (@IHOP) September 30, 2018

“It’s not to be confused as a breakfast beer but rather a craft beer made with real pumpkin and seasonal spices lending true to IHOP’s best of fall pancakes,” Stephanie Peterson, the restaurant chain’s executive director of communications, relayed to Forbes.

Though that publication and the aforementioned release speak of the beer’s availability in the New York tri-state area, IHOPS.Beer lists only 22 New York State destinations as having the brew on tap, so perhaps our New Jersey chums and Connecticut cronies just have to wait a little longer. For those who find themselves in a New York state of mind over this news, there are four IHOPS events set to occur by Oct. 19, with the final gathering being the Brew at the Zoo in the Bronx. That’s a Friday night, so we might show New York a little love (diehard Philadelphians who might consider us out of our gourd, please forgive us, as we would do this in the name of spreading the news to you) and head to the Big Apple for some pumpkin revelry.

Ahead of that possibility, we would definitely like to learn if any friends or colleagues have tried the limited-time-only offering. Whether we know anybody who has, we can at least comment on this move by IHOP to strengthen its branding reach. As we noted in the summer, the business took a drubbing for its short-lived redubbing of itself as IHOb, but that did not diminish consumers’ love for its overall identity. Simply for the novelty of the IHOPS Pumpkin Pancake Stout, we bet that sales totals, which Forbes noted it has preliminarily touted, will keep IHOP in the mix as a daring establishment for the foreseeable future.