Here for the Pumpkin Beer
October is in full-swing and everything from your coffee to your front porch features pumpkins! If your beer choices are not included in that mix, well, they should be. Did you know that the origin of pumpkin beer began several hundred years before the pumpkin-spice craze? Yes, it’s true!
Pumpkin beer and fermented alcoholic beverages date all the way back to Colonial America (1565-1783). Pumpkins are native to North America and when barley was limited, settlers turned to pumpkins because of their high fermentable sugar content. One of America’s first folk songs, written in 1643 heralds the importance of pumpkins in this way:
“Instead of pottage and puddings and custards and pies,
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies;
We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon,
If it was not for pumpkins we should be undone!
If barley be wanting to make into malt,
We must be contented, and think it no fault;
For we make liquor to sweeten our lips,
Of pumpkins and parsnips and walnut-tree chips.”¹
Additionally, one of the earliest recorded recipes was written in 1771, for “Pompion Ale” and submitted anonymously to the American Philosophical Society:
“Let the Pompion be beaten in a Trough as Apples. The expressed Juice is to be boiled in a Copper a considerable Time and carefully skimmed that there may be no Remains of the fibrous Part of the Pulp. After that Intention is answered let the Liquor be hopped cooled fermented and as Malt Beer.”²
As the colonies were settled into established towns and sustainable crops became more plentiful as the years wore on, wheat, barley, and rye became the more utilized ingredients with which to brew beer. Pumpkins continued to be used well into the 1800s, but became far less common and eventually kind of died out until the 1980s, when craft beer started to take shape in the US.
Not only is Buffalo Bill’s Brewery, located in Hayward, CA, the first brewpub that opened in America in 1983, they also brewed the first modern pumpkin craft beer in 1986, and they’re still brewing it to this day! Brewed with real organic pumpkins, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg, it has a golden amber color with sweet aromas of pumpkin pie – and rumor has it that the beer is inspired by a recipe of George Washington’s.
In 2024, it seems that pumpkin beers are a dime a dozen. In order to help narrow down your potential choices, below are a few brews that have survived the cut!
Post Road Pumpkin Ale by Brooklyn Brewery – Brooklyn, NY – 5% ABV. This is a thoroughly enjoyable pumpkin brew! A light bodied beer, the flavor of pumpkin does not disappoint – real pumpkins are utilized to create the beer along with nutmeg as a main spice. It’s extremely balanced and the flavors – especially the spice content – is not at all overpowering. It has a warm biscuit-like malt undertone, while being quite crisp on the finish. It’s a perfect beer for a sunny autumn tailgate!
Jack-o Pumpkin Ale by Samuel Adams Brewery – Boston, MA – 4.4% ABV. This is where a pumpkin beer meets an amber ale. This medium-bodied beer has all the maltiness and caramel-forward flavors of a traditional amber ale, but there’s an additional hint of pumpkin with complimentary spices of cinnamon and nutmeg. It remains easy-drinking with a clean, crisp finish. A lovely autumnal beer to add into your rotation for sure this season.
The Elysian Pumpkin Pack by Elysian Brewing – Seattle, WA. With twelve beers in the pack, you get 3 each of: Night Owl Pumpkin Ale, The Great Pumpkin Imperial Pumpkin Ale, Dark O’ The Moon Pumpkin Stout, and Punkucchino Coffee Pumpkin Ale. Let’s break them down.
Night Owl Pumpkin Ale, 6.7% ABV, is the most traditional pumpkin ale out of all available choices. The beer is brewed with pumpkin, roasted and raw pumpkin seeds, and spiced in conditioning with nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice. It really is a beautiful pumpkin beer – it’s flavors are reminiscent of pumpkin pie with a hint of toastiness, but yet it still remains light, crisp, and quite crushable! Easily one of the best pumpkin beers you’ll come across this autumn.
The Great Pumpkin Imperial Pumpkin Ale, 8.4% ABV. This is basically the Night Owl, except kicked up a notch. Created with the same ingredients, it’s a bit bolder and a bit boozier. Elysian
Dark O’ The Moon Pumpkin Stout, 7.5% ABV. A very dark – almost black – and fairly bitter stout. Whereas the pumpkin flavors were not especially prevalent, it does have notes of bitter dark chocolate and is overall a good stout, and especially so if you are not a fan of sweet stouts.
Punkucchino Coffee Pumpkin Ale, 6% ABV. A stout base with prevalent coffee notes throughout. A very flavorful brew, there is a hint of pumpkin and spices – especially cinnamon – as well. If you enjoy black coffee, you will enjoy this beer. It is not sweet, though it does contain lactose. The coffee used to create this brew is Stumptown Coffee Roasters, based in Portland, OR, and it’s clear that using high-end coffee, results in high-end beer.
This autumn, as we begin to traverse a cooler season, add a pumpkin beer into your selection of beverages – not only does it truly honor a very American tradition and early colonial way of life, but pumpkin beers are just so incredibly varied and quite tasty in the craft beer age of today! Cheers!
References:
¹https://americanlit215.weebly.com/colonial-song-lyrics.html
²https://www.amphilsoc.org/blog/pompion-ale-useful-knowledge
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