I can’t think of a style of beer that we do at Iron Hill that makes people ask “When is the ….coming out?” more than our Pumpkin Ale.  People love it, and why wouldn’t they?  It’s pumpkin pie in a glass!  I always tell people its how you’d do Thanksgiving with a broken jaw.  (of course you can enjoy this beer without a broken jaw)  A lot of people will tell you that pumpkin ales are all about the spice, and a lot of breweries don’t even use pumpkins in their pumpkin beers.  I’ve heard a lot of people say that the actual pumpkins don’t do anything for the flavor of the beer.  Sometimes I wonder if that’s true, until smell the restaurant when they’re cooking.  I have to get in here super early to roast the pumpkins.  I’ve got to be out of the kitchen and have it cleaned up by the time the chefs get in to start cooking you guys lunch!  Usually I get in here so early the cleaning crew is still wrapping up from the night before.  Last year when I was roasting the pumpkins one of the cleaners came up to me and said “Wow! what are you cooking us?  It smells great!”.  It does smell great and no one can tell me that none of those great roasted flavors and aromas don’t make it into the beer.  So I continue to roast, it’s worth missing out on a couple of hours of sleep.  This year we took 200 pounds of long-necked pumpkins, roasted them until they were golden brown and added them to the mash.  Then we added pumpkin pie spices and whole vanilla beans to the boil.  This year we also made an  9% abv Imperial Pumpkin Ale with a little bit of Molasses and Belgian candi sugar.  (That one will be on tap a couple of weeks after the regular pumkin ale).  I joked about calling this one “Cindarella’s Carriage” but was told no guy would go anywhere near a beer with that name.  Anyhow the Pumpkin Ale will go on tap tonight at 5:30 pm.  I’ll be tapping an actual pumpkin full of the beer for our mug club members to drink out of and Chef Steve will be putting out a spread of pumpkin and fall themed nibbles for mug clubbers.  We did this last year in West Chester and it was a great time.  Everyone attending will be able to participate in the judging of our staff pumpkin carving competition.  The most skilled pumpkin carver will win a sixtel of the pumpkin ale to take home.  I’m always amazed at how talented a lot of our staff is at carving pumpkins!  Anyhow, hope to see you next Wednesday.  Get your pumpkin on!

Cheers,

Chris