The Great Pumpkin Gets Ready

You know it’s fall when brewers are thinking about this year’s pumpkin beer. Do they really put pumpkin in beer? Not necessarily but the spices they all use taste a lot like pumpkin pie.

Fermenting pumpkins dates back to the earliest days of the settlers. Malt was in short supply but pumpkins were plentiful and fermented easily. None other than George Washington himself brewed pumpkin beer and his recipe inspired Bill Owens of Buffalo Bill’s Brewery in 1983 to revive this American original. Buffalo Bill’s is a popular restaurant/brew pub located in Hayward, CA not far from San Francisco.

There are now hundreds of breweries offering this seasonal drink and there’s lively discussion of its merits or not online. The one thing everyone seems to agree on: there’s really not much pumpkin flavor to be found. But if pumpkin pie in a glass is your thing, go for it!