I'm one of those curmudgeons who doesn't like to drink "holiday" brews until after Thanksgiving. Most of the holiday beers are geared towards Christmas and winter time and even though they are available in stores now, I don't like cutting short the fall beer season and not giving the autumnal brews their just due.
Fortunately Harpoon Brewery has come to the rescue with a holiday offering meant especially for Thanksgiving. Harpoon is one of the original and bigger breweries of the craft brew movement with facilities in Boston and Windsor, Vermont.
The beer is called Grateful Harvest...and in a word - it's "good".
It is advertised as a cranberry ale and you can see and taste that it is. The ale is amber in color but with a hint of red evident. It claims to be sweet with a tart finish. I can taste the tartness of the cranberry alright. But I'm always hesitant when a beer warns me it has a sweet side. There are no such worries here. The beer is nicely balanced, and neither any sweetness (which I really don't detect) nor tartness is overpowering. 
The beer is advertised as going well with turkey. I haven't had the opportunity to test that claim, but it does give Thanksgiving feast hosts an option for the beer lovers at your table who would prefer a brew to a glass of Chardonnay or Pinot Noir. I know I'll have some on hand.
The added bonus is that Harpoon Brewery donates a $1 to a local food bank for every six pack of Grateful Harvest sold as part of their "Harpoon Helps" campaign. They say the food bank is chosen based on where the six pack is purchased. So you can feel good buying the beer as well as drinking it.
I am giving Grateful Harvest Cranberry Ale from Harpoon 8 mugs out of 10. And they get a little bonus for the food bank donation.

Last Friday evening a few of us went to some local outlets in the Berkshires to do some shopping. The most exciting part of the evening was when we decided to go home an alternate route that would take us through Great Barrington, Massachusetts. This gave us the opportunity to stop and have dinner at one of our favorite brew pubs, the Barrington Brewery. I believe this was my reward for chaufferring the others on a shopping trip where I myself hadn't found what I was looking for.
We first found this brew pub a few years ago when we were invited to take a bus tour of western Massachusetts brew pubs. That was a fun day. The Barrington Brewery was our first stop. We got a tour of the brewing facilities and an explanation of the brewing process from grain through finished product. And of course we were able to sample some of their offerings. I bought a growler of their IPA and still have the empty bottle as a memento.
On the way another member of our party expressed the hope the brewery would have a Pumpkin Ale. I concurred and admit that put me in the mood for one. I was looking forward to sampling a crisp brew with the hint of pumpkin and spice. It helped that the evening felt more like an October evening even though it is still technically summer.
Alas when we arrived and were seated we learned that their seasonal options did not include a pumpkin brew. They had a Scotch Ale and an Octoberfest available along with their usual lineup. Naturally I had to sample both of their seasonal brews. The others in our party had the Raspberry Ale, which is a lighter but refreshing brew. Have you gotten the impression yet that I was the only male in our party? If so then you are perceptive.
I'll save a discussion of the Scotch Ale for another day. I was especially interested in the Octoberfest as I have been sampling the Octoberfest offerings from two of New England's microbrew heavyweights, Sam Adams and Harpoon. The Octoberfests were included in their Harvest and Football Tailgater variety 12 packs respectively. As you may recall those were the variety packs I supplied to our Football Fantasy draft night. So these versions were fresh in my mind if not on my palate.
The Octoberfest from Barrington Brewery was superior to the brews from Sam Adams and Harpoon. This is not surprising. I mean you are drinking beer dispensed in the same building in which it is brewed. It cannot be any fresher. But it went beyond that. I would simply say that the Octoberfest from the brew pub was smoother and tastier than the Sam Adams and Harpoon Octoberfests. It has a nice body and flavor with no hint of bitterness. And it is not so heavy that you couldn't drink it as your one beer of the night if you were so inclined.
The Octoberfests from Sam Adams and Harpoon are certainly good. I've never had complaints about either. While not as smooth as Barrington Brewery's verson, they certainly go down easily enough and have the same basic flavor characteristics. If either was the only brew available to you for an evening you would be more than satisfied. Whether it's the freshness and not having to travel or just a superior recipe is difficult to get at, but the brew pub's beer is just better. 
So I'm giving Barrington Brewery Octoberfest 8 mugs out of 10. I would have rated it a 7, but based on the discussion above that would mean rating the Octoberfests from Sam Adams and Harpoon at 6 mugs out of 10. And they are certainly better than that. They are not far behind the brew pub offering. But my system does not allow for scores involving a fraction of a mug.
I mean come on a partial mug? That would be messy and you would lose some beer, a cardinal sin if ever there was one. If I had never tasted Barrington Brewery Octoberfest I would score both Sam Adams and Harpoon 7 mugs out of 10. But I can't score all three 7 mugs if I've said is clearly superior to the others. Hence the 8 mug score for Barrington Brewery. 
Phew! That's a long winded way of saying get out to Barrington Brewery and check them out. And if you can't and want a good Octoberfest beer, you won't go wrong with either Sam Adams or Harpoon.
By the way Barrington Brewery has been in operation since 1995. They have gone solar and advertise themselves as producing Solar Powered Beer. And in case you're wondering the food is good and they try to use local ingredients when possible. As you can imagine beer and beer related ingredients figure into many of their recipes, including dessert!
You can check them out at this link.