Pumpkin Heads

Clark’s Ale House, 122 W. Jefferson St.
(479-9859), has been serving pumpkin beer for quite some time now, but
has seen a yearly growth in customer anticipation of the seasonal
spirit the closer we get to finishing out this decade. “The five years
I’ve been at Clark’s I’ve seen more and more different types of pumpkin
beers come out,” says Steve LaCount, beer manager at the craft brew
mecca on the outskirts of Armory Square. “And obviously that increased
supply is a direct result of it growing in popularity among beer
drinkers.”

LaCount notes that they only order one
keg per each variety of pumpkin beer served because they like to rotate
their draft lineup; once the barrel goes dry, a new brand is brought
in. This month, they’ve served Saranac Pumpkin Ale and Weyerbacher
Imperial Pumpkin Ale, both of which recently sold out; they are now are
offering Brooklyn Brewery Post Road Pumpkin Ale. And just like the
delectable difference that exists between your grandmother’s pumpkin
pie and your significant other’s dismal attempts at pie-making, pumpkin
beer also has that same discrepancy depending on who is crafting it.
But you’re safe at Clark’s: Everything they pour tastes just like that
old-fashioned goodness. . . it just depends what you’re in the mood for.

“The Saranac Pumpkin has a smooth
texture and is a little sweeter than the Weyerbacher and is not too
heavy on the spice, but you can still taste it,” elaborates LaCount
about the tasteful discrepancies. “It also has a 5.4 percent alcohol
content opposed to the Weyerbacher, which is around 8 percent, which is
why most people only drank one or two while they were here because it
is so strong. But the Weyerbacher is more heavily infused with
cinnamon, nutmeg and pumpkin spices and has more of that pumpkin pie
taste to it.” The 5 percent alcohol Brooklyn brand now on tap, by
contrast, features an orange amber color, a warm pumpkin aroma,
biscuity malt center and a crisp finish.

Whereas most people that eat pie enjoy
the taste of pumpkin, the same can’t be said of people who relish that
taste within their brew. And not to open a can of gender bias, but some
women tend to navigate away from beer and opt for sweeter palliatives
like cranberry-vodka mixers, Mint Mojitos or wine—white especially. But
LaCount claims that many women, as well as most other non-beer
enthusiasts who have tried pumpkin beer, have savored its festive
embrace.

“Most people who have tried it for the
first time like it, especially if they like pumpkin pie,” continues
LaCount. “With all of the spices added in on top of the pumpkin, the
resulting flavor is different than what you’d come to expect of
traditional brews and it is definitely more approachable to people who
don’t normally like beer.”

While the concept of jack-o’-lantern juice might be
burgeoning in current popularity, it’d be wise to note that
pumpkin-brewed beer is one of the oldest brewing traditions in America.
In the late 1700s and early 1800s, prohibitive taxation on English
malt—think along the lines of the Boston Tea Party—caused American
brewers to use alternative ingredients to ferment beer with, and
pumpkins were a source that were plentiful and, most importantly,
flavorful. “There’s definitely a rich history in it,” says LaCount,
“and keeping the pumpkin beers flowing is an homage to American brewers
from Colonial times onward.”

And as Clark’s likes to honor past,
they will be doing so as part of their People’s Real Ale Fest, taking
place Friday, Oct. 23, and Saturday, Oct. 24, noon to midnight, and
Sunday, Oct. 25, from noon until “whenever the party seems to have
stopped,” notes LaCount. (Regular business hours are Mondays through
Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Food is served until 1 a.m. Mondays
through Wednesdays, until 2 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, and
Sundays—though you need to call ahead to make sure grub is available.)

This biannual event—one is also held in
the spring—features 25 brewers from New York state who will be serving
their liquids in their natural state, in casks. As opposed to keg beer,
there is little or no carbonation in cask beer, and because there are
no CO2 bubbles to impede the natural ingredients of the drink as it
tickles your tongue, more of the natural flavor is preserved and, thus,
tasted.

And wouldn’t you know, there will be
casks of pumpkin beer there. One of them will be the Southern Tier
Pumking Imperial Pumpkin Ale, which LaCount proclaims “is hands down my
favorite of all the Pumpkins I’ve tried.” The other pumpkin beer that
will be served out of the cask comes from a pub not too distant of a
stagger from Clark’s.

Empire Brewery will stop by Clark’s for
a friendly visit during the People’s Real Ale Fest and have a cask of
their Critz’s Pumpkin Ale available for the drinking public. Of course,
the pumpkin ale is also available at Empire’s home base, 120 Walton St.
(475-BEER), anytime during bar hours, which are Mondays through
Saturdays from 11 a.m. to last call, and Sundays from noon to last
call. But if you’re thinking about waiting until after Halloween to try
their pumpkin brew, you might want to reschedule it sooner.

“We produced 24 kegs and since we started serving it on Oct. 1, we’ve gone through 12 of them {as of  Oct.
11},” says Empire brewmaster Tim Butler. “We’ll have it available until
it lasts. We tapped the last keg of our stock last year on Halloween,
and we’re hoping to have at least one still available this year on
Halloween as well. But there is a possibility that it runs out sooner
as it’s been going pretty quickly this year.”

And if the “Critz” in the title of
Empire’s pumpkin ale rings a bell with any of you locals out there,
it’s because they only use pumpkins grown on Critz Farms in Cazenovia
to make the beverage. There are 170 of them to be exact, which are
usually ready to harvest by mid-September. And according to Butler,
it’s a chore that is worth it to go full throttle on brewing the
pumpkin ale and having it ready for sale within a couple weeks.

If you’ve ever been to Empire Brewery,
you’ve probably seen the can’t-miss on-site brewery through the looking
glass behind the bar. And it was there where the beer was eventually
made into what goes in your cup. But there was some off-site
preparation as well. Butler describes the process:

“The 170 cleaned and cut pumpkins are
roasted in our ovens, then added to the mash of the beer. The mash is
where hot water and crushed malted barley are combined to form an
oatmeal-like consistency. During this process, the starches in the
malted barley are converted to sugar and a sweet liquid called wort is
produced. The pumpkins will infuse their roasted flavor and natural
sugars into the wort and the liquid is then pumped into the boiling
kettle for one hour.  

“Hops are added at the beginning of the
boil and the spices are added at the end.  The liquid is then cooled
and pumped into our fermenters where yeast is added and fermentation
begins. Yeast eats the sugar in the wort, converting it to alcohol. The
beer ferments for seven to 10 days, then conditions for five more days
at cold temperatures and it is then packaged and ready for sale.”

While Butler notes that some people who
don’t normally drink traditional ales might be attracted to the exotic
flavor of the pumpkin, he adds that many people also tend to have a
greater appreciation of it when they come to understand what he and
many others are doing as craft brewers in trying to bring a quality to
the drink not found in most domestic 12-packs. “It’s hard to say how
people will react to the pumpkin if they’re used to drinking
Budweiser,” says Butler. “There’s a lot of people that just don’t get
pumpkin ale and have a problem equating that flavor to beer. But once
they get past that, they usually tend to like it.”

Critz’s Pumpkin Ale, which Butler
describes as hearty and full-flavored and also infused with similar
spices as if you were “making a big batch of pumpkin pie,” is offered
by the pint at $5, and is also available as part of their six-beer
seasonal sampler tray. As with all their beers, if you wanted some
pumpkin beer to “take out,” Empire offers the option to bring it on
home in a half-gallon growler. The price for your first growler at
empire is $15—$3 of which is the cost of the glass container which you
get to keep—and every subsequent refill costs $12.

The New Times has also been
tipped off that Kitty Hoynes, 301 W. Fayette St. (424-1974), is getting
in on the pumpkin beer craze, and is also serving Brooklyn Post Road
Pumpkin Ale. Meanwhile, Coleman’s Authentic Irish Pub, 100 S. Lowell
Ave. (476-1933), is also serving the Saranac Pumpkin Ale. If any other
watering hole in the city is serving it and was left out, it wasn’t
intentional, we just didn’t have the lowdown. Cheers!