At Last!
Love them or hate them, Pumpkin Beers are a fall tradition in both macro- and craft breweries across America. Some actually contain pumpkin but most don’t. Some breweries offer a subtly spiced version, but many deliver in-your-face pumpkin pie spice. While pumpkin pie spices are the most common flavoring, pumpkin beers can incorporate other spices like apple pie and chai, and even flavorings like marshmallow and chocolate. The base beers run the gamut from pale ales to wheat beers to dark beers like porters and stouts. Timmermans even makes a pumpkin Lambic. In other words, pumpkin beers are all over the board in terms of style and flavors.
Where Did Pumpkin Beers Come From?
Pumpkin beers have a long history in the United States, going all the way back to colonial times. Pumpkins were an important part of peoples’ diets from the 1600s well into the early 1800s and were used in breads, pies, custards, sauces, molasses and, of course, beer.
Pumpkin beers of old were made largely of pumpkins and brown sugar. This was due to the fact that barley and wheat were hard to come by in the colonies, while pumpkin is a native plant that provided fermentable sugars for brewing beer. Pumpkin beers fell out of popularity in the early 1800s as they were considered “rustic,” and because wheat and barley were more easily available by then. Modern pumpkin beers taste much more like pumpkin pie spice, compared to the old-time pumpkin beers. Some people despise them, while others can’t wait for fall to come around, bringing a slew of pumpkin beers into the market.
There Are Now More Than 400 Pumpkin Beers
Who First Brewed Pumpkin Beer in Modern Times?
According to the Smithsonian, America’s first brewer of modern pumpkin beer is Buffalo Bill’s Brewery in Hayward, California. Their America’s Original Pumpkin Beer has been brewed since the early 1980s, and was inspired by one of George Washington’s recipes. The idea caught on and now there are more than 400 pumpkin beers brewed in the U.S. Some breweries, like Elysian in Seattle, have a whole line of pumpkin beers in a range of styles and you can buy a sample pack with four different pumpkin brews.
Bruz Biere de Gourd
Bruz Beers has made pumpkin beers almost every year, using amber or dark beers as a base. This year’s offering is Biere de Gourd. Its base beer is a Bière de Garde, a French-style beer that is very similar to a Saison. It is a hazy orange beer with a light tan head. It’s lightly spicy on the nose. On the palate, it features a more-pronounced spiciness, still understated, and the rich maltiness of a Bière de Garde. It uses a proportion of real pumpkin, which gives it a nice substantial body and a fruity finish. It’s a pumpkin beer that you will probably want more than one of.
Come and get yours now in both our taprooms. Hurry! They sell out fast!
