Try?
Is there a better time of year than fall? I don’t think so. While bringing an end to the brutally oppressive dog days of summer, fall also sets the stage for the winter holidays that end the year. Brightly colored leaves, football, Halloween, Thanksgiving, temperate blustery days, cool and peaceful nights-all of these are just some of the gifts fall offers up.
Oh, and did I mention beer? You knew that was coming eventually, now didn’t you? Where would fall be without Oktoberfest beers, after all? I don’t think I could deal with it. But if that weren’t enough, fall also brings with it the most wonderful fruit beer of them all: the pumpkin beer.
And of course, pumpkin beer is nothing new. When the Pilgrims first arrived in New England, barley malt was a scarce commodity indeed. Still, those early colonists were a resourceful lot, and found other things to make fermented beverages with as the following colonial ditty implies:
If barley be wanting to make into malt,
We must be contented, and think it no fault,
For we can make liquor to sweeten our lips,
Of pumpkins and parsnips and walnut tree chips.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way my friends. But those colonial geniuses caught on to something and today pumpkin beers have become a nice little holiday treat for craft beer enthusiasts. Today, of course, barley malt is not so wanting as it was in colonial days, and pumpkin ales are made with malt, pumpkin, and spices we generally tend to associate with pumpkin pie. The latter are what really impart most of the flavor. If you’ve never made a pumpkin pie, you might be surprised how little pumpkin really goes into it.
One of the better examples of what you can do with pumpkin, malt, and spice is Dogfish head Punkin Ale. The first time I tried this was at a “Sipping by the River” beer tasting event in Philadelphia many years ago. Of course, a few sips were all I got, as is the norm at beer tasting events.
Today, luckily, I can
buy this wonderful stuff at my local liquor store. Brewed in Rehoboth, Delaware, by the legendary
Dogfish head Brewing Company, Punkin Ale is sold in four-packs for a
reasonable $5.99. It’s also one of the strongest Pumpkin beers on the market
at 7% alcohol by volume.
Dogfish Head Punkin Ale pours to a rusty copper color with a light, creamy head formation and a spicy, pumpkin pie nose. The palate is a bit thicker and firmer than most other pumpkin ales on the market, chewy with a little caramel, firm and full bodied with fleshy, stringy pumpkin flavor.
Brown sugar is used as well, and though most of it will ferment out it adds a richness, a dark molasses note, and of course that extra alcohol kick. Notes of rum raisin ice cream and candied fruit are discernible also. The spices (cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg) add a wonderfully fragrant dimension to this truly delightful beer that finishes dry from a touch of hops and, to a greater degree, the spice.
I like to say a really good pumpkin ale should be a lot like a slice of pumpkin pie in a glass. This one is a lot like a slice of pumpkin pie in a glass spiked with rum. It’s a rare treat, and for a pumpkin lover like me, one not to be missed.
Update 10/22/2015: Well look what I found! Deep in the back of the beer fridge (one of them anyway) was a bottle of Dogfish Head Punkin Ale-circa 2013. Big brown sugar and cinnamon nose, squashy stringy pumpkin in the palate. Mace, cinnamon and nutmeg leading into the very dry finish. Seriously this beer is as good as it was two years ago...perhaps drier and better! Definitely a beer for the ages in more ways than one.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft
