With summer over and fall upon us, we turn away from the light and easy drinking lagers and wheats for something with a bit more body, more flavour and inevitably, more spices. October is the traditional month for the pumpkin spice beers to come out, but right around the corner we will see the winter warmers to follow. Pumpkins are not very flavourful on their own, and with subtle spicing can make for a great style, showcasing the base beer while complimenting the pumpkin. More often then not though we are overloaded with spice, creating little more than a cloying and one dimensional beer. How this humble squash first got involved with beer is an interesting story, but what we currently find in the craft scene here is very different from where we started.
Brewing with pumpkin originated as a means to supplement the sugars in malt. In the 18th century barley malt was hard to come by, with the majority of barley being used for baking instead. Without a consistent supply of barley, the hardy and local pumpkin was used as an alternate source of sugars. Maple syrup and honey were also added to bump up the ABV. These beers had no spices, as the brewers were attempting to make something close to traditional barley beers. Only in the late 1980s did spices get introduced to the pumpkin beer. The combination of spices and pumpkin was much more familiar in pumpkin pie, and instead attempting to brew a pumpkin beer, the goal was to make liquid pumpkin pie. Cinnamon, clove and nutmeg are the most common spices, but ginger, allspice, cardamom and vanilla are typical as well. The cloyingly sweet and heavily spiced beer typically is associated with big beers or malt forward styles, porters, brown ales and imperial pumpkin ales.
More recently though, there is a trend to return to pumpkin’s humble beginnings. Both brewers and craft beer drinkers are looking for the ingredients to show through, and not be covered up with spices and sugar. Brewing a spicy but unspiced pumpkin beer is definitely possible, and here is the link to one such recipe. Rye malt gives the spice note for this beer but yeast can also be used to create those clove notes. I haven’t seen it yet, but I would love to see how a Pumpkin Hefe would turn out. If you find one, let me know or my next year’s pumpkin beer recipe might have a german twist.
If you are looking for some pumpkin beers on the scene this season, try Deep Cove’s Harvest Ale. It is an unspiced ale with roasted acorn squash and fresh hops. This uses squash from the UBC farm and fresh hops, allowing each ingredient to come through without muddying the flavour. If you do want a bit of spice in the beer, Parallel 49s Schadenfreude is a lightly spiced pumpkin lager which goes down far too smoothly. Pumpkin beers are slowly coming full circle, moving back towards showcase their ingredients instead of hiding amongst sweetness and spice. There still are some heavy handed spiced beers out there, and come christmas we will likely see another round come out. For now though, seek out those lightly spiced ales or pumpkin beers that don’t rely on any spices to create those flavours.
Happy drinking,
Kerry Dyson
Vice President
CAMRA BC – Vancouver Branch
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