The pumpkin is one versatile vegetable. There is just so much you can do with the mighty pumpkin, and let me tell you, I do. I love pumpkin and use it to create a veritable plethora of dishes. There is pumpkin pie, of course, and pumpkin seeds. Everybody knows about those culinary delights. But you can also make pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin soup, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin casserole, boiled pumpkin, and more. The possibilities are endless.

The best thing you can do with a pumpkin, though, is make beer with it. Well, that’s my favorite form of pumpkin anyway (are you surprised?). Pumpkins and beer actually go way back, back to the days of the pilgrims who, when barley malt was scarce, would ferment just about anything they could get their hands on to make a little hooch. Witness this little number from the early 17th century:

If barley be wanting to make into malt,
We must be content and think it no fault,
For we can make liquor to sweeten our lips,
Of pumpkins, and parsnips, and walnut tree chips.

Number one in its day, I’m sure. Today, thankfully, we rarely lack barley to be made into malt, but we still brew with pumpkin and think it no fault. Many brewers in the northeastern section of the country and in other areas still incorporate pumpkin into special seasonal beers, usually in the fall when some 80% of all pumpkins grown are harvested. These beers will often be spiced as well to give them the aroma and flavor of a fresh-baked pumpkin pie.

Although I’ve enjoyed pumpkin ales during my tenure in the northeast for many years, I didn’t expect to find them here in the south. Imagine my delight then when I walked into Atlanta’s Summit’s Wayside Tavern and saw Cottonwood Pumpkin Ale on the draft list. Brewed by the Carolina Beer Company of Mooresville, North Carolina, this is a fall seasonal beer that is available in bottles and on draft.

Cottonwood Pumpkin Ale has won several awards and a few sips reveal why: this is a delightful, easy drinking beer with appetizing hints of spice and pumpkin flavor. Carolina brewer Don Richardson used his mother’s recipe for pumpkin pie and tweaked it to make a delightful beer.

Cottonwood Pumpkin Ale pours to an amber red color with a light and spritzy head formation and a good does of pumpkin in the nose. The palate is medium bodied with an easy drinking light to medium malt character. The pumpkin and spices, however, are what really grab your attention. A delightful dash of stringy, meaty pumpkin flavors combine with strong notes of nutmeg and hints of allspice and cinnamon to bring to mind the flavor of a slice of holiday pie. The finish is balanced without a pronounced hop character.

A natural to serve alongside pumpkin pie, cookies, bread, or whatever pumpkin treat you have handy.

Cottonwood beers are distributed in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and parts of Virginia.

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