What's Wrong with Pumpkin Ale?
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| Photo by Susanne Jutzeler from Pexels |
Autumn is probably my favorite time of year. Maybe its the cool crisp morning & night air. Perhaps its the beautiful colors we experience in the Northeast US or the anticipation of the coming holiday season. Nothing speaks fall to me more than the smell of pumpkin spice. Yeah, you can say things are out of hand. Pumpkin this and pumpkin that. Starbucks released their famous Pumpkin Spice Latte a week sooner this year to take advantage of the mass appeal for all things pumpkin. Heck, the super market even has pumpkin Humus, which my wife bought. It wasn't very good. 😞
This brings me to Pumpkin Ale. Personally, I really like a nice pumpkin ale. Right now my fellow home-brewers are cringing at this admittance of beer sacrilege. When done right; not over-spiced, they can be the perfect beer for the season. The brewing of beer with pumpkins dates all the way back to colonial days. When English settlers first came to America they looked for ways to produce beer. There was no barley available to them, so they needed another source of fermentable sugar. Pumpkins and other types of squash were abundantly available. Even George Washington did some brewing experiments with Pumpkin, circa 1771. Based on this work, Buffalo Bill's Brewery produced a modern commercial pumpkin ale in the mid-80's. The BJCP recognizes pumpkin ales in the 2015 Style Guidelines - 30B Autumn Seasonal Beer. During this time of year, Wiener Dog Brewing usually produces Sophie's Pumpkinator Ale. It's a beer that we have worked on for the last three years. With each iteration, we work to perfect this wonderful fall treat. Our latest version contains a healthy dose of Marris Otter as the base malt and is accented with Munich Malt, Carmel 60, Carmel 120 and a little Pale Chocolate Malt. Color is 16 Lovibond, with 21 IBU's from hit of traditional Kent East Goldings and finished with London Ale yeast.
This brings me to Pumpkin Ale. Personally, I really like a nice pumpkin ale. Right now my fellow home-brewers are cringing at this admittance of beer sacrilege. When done right; not over-spiced, they can be the perfect beer for the season. The brewing of beer with pumpkins dates all the way back to colonial days. When English settlers first came to America they looked for ways to produce beer. There was no barley available to them, so they needed another source of fermentable sugar. Pumpkins and other types of squash were abundantly available. Even George Washington did some brewing experiments with Pumpkin, circa 1771. Based on this work, Buffalo Bill's Brewery produced a modern commercial pumpkin ale in the mid-80's. The BJCP recognizes pumpkin ales in the 2015 Style Guidelines - 30B Autumn Seasonal Beer. During this time of year, Wiener Dog Brewing usually produces Sophie's Pumpkinator Ale. It's a beer that we have worked on for the last three years. With each iteration, we work to perfect this wonderful fall treat. Our latest version contains a healthy dose of Marris Otter as the base malt and is accented with Munich Malt, Carmel 60, Carmel 120 and a little Pale Chocolate Malt. Color is 16 Lovibond, with 21 IBU's from hit of traditional Kent East Goldings and finished with London Ale yeast.
