If it smells like pumpkin and tastes like pumpkin…
…it’s probably not a pumpkin beer.
If you’re looking for an all-American style of beer, the best example on the shelves might be the pumpkin ales that show up in Autumn. When the first European settlers came to America centuries ago, they brewed what were likely the first pumpkin ales. The pumpkin wasn’t there to distinguish an ale as a fall seasonal like it is these days. Instead, it was a cheap and local fermentable, used for beer in a country where malt was scarce. These original pumpkin ales weren’t spiced or gussied-up like the beers of today – no sir, the pumpkin (or sometimes parsnips, molasses, or cornstalks) was simply there as fermento-fuel for hungry yeast. Reportedly, none other than George Washington – that’s right, the dude on the quarter – brewed a mean pumpkin porter.
Jump forward half a millennium, and pumpkin ales are a whole different animal … er, fruit. Most noticeably, today’s pumpkin beers are usually spiced all to heck. Spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and allspice are flavors that many people associate with the season, and breweries go wild with these in their fall seasonals. For some brewers, the spice is enough – “pumpkin” ales are crafted with little or none of the orange gourd to be found. Sometimes, the pumpkin is there, but the spice isn’t handled with any subtlety, and you end up drinking the liquid equivalent of a toppled spice rack.
Using real pumpkin, sometimes roasted and hand-cut or pureed, arguably produces the best results in the world of pumpkin beers. All that pumpkin meat adds some depth and starchy character to a beer, along with a thicker, fuller body. Unfortunately, using pumpkin – especially a lot of pumpkin – is a time-consuming prospect for brewers. It’s another excuse for breweries, from the big guys down to the craft crew, to cut corners and use canned puree or a mix of spices deemed “pumpkin flavoring.”
A prime example of what I’d call the typical pumpkin ale is Shipyard’s Pumpkinhead, brewed right here in Portland. The sessionable brew is immensely popular, and a quick look at Shipyard’s Pumpkinhead Facebook page confirms the beer has an almost fanatical following. Despite being available for only a few months of the year, Pumpkinhead makes up 15% of the brewery’s total sales for the year. Pumpkinhead is a perfectly fine, perfectly average holiday seasonal, but (as far as I know) isn’t even brewed with pumpkin. Like a vast majority of these “pumpkin” beers, the beer is heavy on spice, but is otherwise just a malty session ale.
Luckily, more and more craft brewers are putting out atypical pumpkin beers. Imperial pumpkin beers, brews made with loads of real pumpkin, stouts and porters are joining spiced mild ales on the shelves. Here’s a couple options that make up the best of the best – and the more unique of the unique – pumpkin craft beers on the market.
One of the few pumpkin ales out there served on a nitro tap, the Selins Grove Pumpkin Ale is a full, super-creamy version of the style that has some serious vanilla notes along with fruit and spice. If you’re looking for a beer with a lot going on in the glass without any spice, there’s spruce, chocolate, coffee and pumpkin goodness in Rock Art Pumpkin Imperial Spruce Stout. My favorite pumpkin beer, the Southern Tier Pumking, is a malty delight sweet enough to remind you of pie with a dollop of whipped cream on top. Another entry to the “lots going on” camp is the Midnight Sun T.R.E.A.T., an imperial chocolate porter with pumpkin – along with cinnamon, dark cocoa, nutmeg and cloves. Many people point to Dogfish Head Punkin as their favorite example of the style, an ale brewed with tons of baked pumpkin and brown sugar that tastes like pumpkin bread. At a hefty 8% ABV, Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale is a ballsy beer, and has an alcohol kick along with a perfectly balanced spice mix. Finally, the Fisherman’s Pumpkin Stout is a subtle take on the style, and the coffee-y stout tastes a bit like a pumpkin-flavored latte.
Many craft beer drinkers are quick to dismiss pumpkin ales, thinking of them all as simple, over-spiced messes. While there’s plenty of that out there, I’m hoping that this post provides a few examples to broaden your pumpkin beer horizons. There are a ton of really good, really different and unique pumpkin beers flowing into the market from craft brewers, and it might be time to give the style another chance.
What are your favorite pumpkin beers?
6 Comments to “If it smells like pumpkin and tastes like pumpkin…”
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[...] out the full column – and some of my suggestions for atypical pumpkin beers – over at [...]
Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale is my favorite. It uses real pumpkin and pumpkin seeds and is brewed with over 7 lbs. of pumpkin per barrel. It’s very tasty.
I want George Washington’s recipe.
Nice writeup, Josh!
And a really nice list of the top pumpkin beers out there (Selin’s Grove, Southern Tier, and Midnight Sun, which has a couple of variations). Dogfish Head is pretty much a toppled spice rack, seemingly moreso each year. Now I can’t stop thinking about Selin’s Grove Pumpkin Ale…
@poisoneddwarf Though I’d take it with a grain of salt, I’ve heard that Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale is based at least in part on Washington’s recipe. More likely than not it’s marketing spin, but…
[...] Spruce Ale, is based on a recipe from none other than Benjamin Franklin. Between that and Washington’s pumpkin beer recipes, the founders were quite the creative [...]