Craft beer 101: What is Pumpkin beer?

October 30, 10:49 PMChicago Craft Beer ExaminerMark McDermott

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Southern Tier's (New York) popular Halloween
& Thanksgiving seasonal.

It's becoming as traditional as cartons of eggnog in the dairy case: Pumpkin beer for the holidays.

Each year, pumpkin beers seem to get more popular. Even the big guys are offering pumpkin beers: MillerCoors has sold "Blue Moon Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale" for ten years, while Anheuser-Busch InBev started offering "Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale" in 2005.

Using pumpkin in beer goes back a lot further. In fact, it's a great example of American inventiveness. The early European settlers couldn't easily get or grow barley malt or hops easily, so they brewed with whatever fermentables they could find: maize, molasses, persimmons, sassafrass and other roots, parsnips, and squash, including pumpkins.

George Washington's household was known to have experimented with pumpkin brews (though George usually expressed a desire to keep well stocked with local porters). This historical factoid inspired Bill Owens, founder of Buffalo Bill's Brewpub in Hayward, California, to revive the style with Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale in 1986. Today, hardly any brewpub or craft brewer doesn't try out at least pumpkin beer recipe. More than a few homebrewers have even done their mash or fermentation in big, hollowed pumpkins. Here's a Flickr album by one such experimenter.

What to Expect:
There are two basic variations on pumpkin beer. The most popular uses actual pumpkin and a combination of spices that would be used in a pumpkin pie recipe. Since raw pumpkin itself has very little flavor, it's usually skinned and cut into chunks then roasted, perhaps with brown sugar, like squash. Your jack'o'lantern pumpkin won't do for this; you need eating pumpkins, with thicker flesh. Some years ago, I was among a group of novice homebrewers at a Brew-on-Premise doing a pumpkin ale among several styles at once. The BOP manager just dumped canned pumpkin pie filling into the boil.
The other variation simply skips the pumpkin and uses the spices for pumpkin pie: cinnamon, clove, allspice, ginger, cardamon, and vanilla. Brewing with pumpkin can leave quite a mess in your equipment, and some beer fans will say it's the spice that make the beer, anyway.

The base beer for pumpkin ale may usually be a blond or amber ale, whose lighter colored malt will be augmented by color from the cooked pumpkin. Since pumpkin beers are a short-run product, you probably will not see one based on a lager, which ties up fermenters for a longer period. With spices involved, the hops are reduced to provide only a base bitterness. There's no guideline for alcohol strength, but most popular examples run about 5-6% alcohol by volume, just into a "dessert beer" designation. This is all, of course, just a general guideline. Most brewers make their pumpkin any darn old way they please. As with any style, there are also "Imperial" pumpkin ales that can go all the way to 10% abv.

Pumpkin beers don't float everybody's boats. Even some diehard beer geeks will have just one for the whole season, especially if that one turns out to be too over-spiced. Many brewpubs will make just one batch or a mini-batch per year, so it doesn;t hang around on the tap after the season is over.

Pumpkin Beers to try:
Onion Pumpkin Ale, Wild Onion Brewpub, Lake Barrington. This one did float my boat earlier this month, simply because alongside of pumpkin and spices, I got a creamy impression that suggested pie crust, whipped cream or meringue. The Wild Onion has had this offering every fall for almost ten years. 36 out of 50.
O'Fallon Pumpkin. This bottled beer has been on Chicago shelves since at least 2004. It has the definite taste of pumpkin baked with brown sugar. Nutmeg is most prominent, but none of the spices is especially overpowering. Well balanced. 29 of 50.
Southern Tier Pumking. At 9% abv, this one falls into the category of an "Imperial Pumpkin" beer. As Southern Tier has just been expending distribution into more states, it's this season's hot seasonal. Caramel malts and pumpkin on a bed of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. Many tasters report an alcoholic and sweet nose on top. Available mostly in 22 oz. bottles, but it has turned up on tap in Chicago.
Dogfish Head Punkin' Ale. A little less strong than Pumpking at 7%. Made with baked pumpkins, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar. Notably less sweet than the Pumpking, too. This was the big, popular national pumpkin beer in autumns past.
Flossmoor Station Bourbon Barrel Big Black Pumpkin. Flossmoor's previous brewmaster, Matt Van Wyk, had "Big Black Pumpkin" last year, an 8% abv monster brewed with 100 pounds of pumpkin and 20 pounds of cocoa nibs. This was his take on Midnight sun of Anchorage's Imperial Chocolate Pumpkin Porter. Flossmoor's current brewer, Bryan Shimkos, does not plan to recreate Matt's recipes, but did find some Big Black Pumpkin aging in a bourbon barrel. He's got it on tap now, and will also be pouring it at the Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beer on November 7.