Daily Loaf

Recently, craft and macro-brewers alike have seized upon a formula that’s worked for the greeting card industry and the Food Network for years now: holiday-themed product. It’s an easy sell for Hallmark and its ilk, and televised cooking shows have made a good go of showcasing cooking focused more on big holidays than seasonal ingredients. But beer? Shoehorning iconic flavors into brews — available for a limited time only! — seems more of a stretch.

Which brings us to the spate of pumpkin ales hitting the market right about … now. There are dozens available, with flavors derived from fresh pumpkin, pumpkin puree or the usual formula of scientifically-derived pumpkin essence. And, as usual, the better the ingredient, the better the beer.

Post Road Pumpkin Ale — from the exciting Brooklyn Brewery — and Wolaver’s Will Stevens’ Pumpkin Ale both go the all-natural route, using whole pumpkins blended directly into the mash. Wolaver’s, following its certified organic status, sources only organic pumpkins grown near the brewery in Vermont. And with both, you can see it in the glass.

The Wolaver’s version displays a thick, tight head above dark, caramel liquid tinged with hints of brick red. Light malt and cloves waft from the glass, brighter than the color would indicate. In the mouth, though, it’s tight, releasing little of the spice and pumpkin promised in the nose. The brew tastes more like a middling-hopped ale with a slight sweet vegetal character than a gulp of Autumn’s essence.

Brooklyn’s pumpkin ale shows more orange and amber than Wolaver’s, with a nose that’s immediately more compelling and complex, exhibiting toasty malt and dark roasted pumpkin notes. It tastes brighter than it smells, with a hop bite linked inextricably with hints of bitter nutmeg, and more sweet roasted malt and pumpkin tying everything together. Post Road Pumpkin Ale is a more complete package than that offered in the muted, simpler Wolaver’s.

Both of these beers, however, exhibit what a serious brewery can do with a seasonal beer that tries to evoke something as iconic as pumpkin pie, without heading off into novelty craziness. They’re beer, not pie, and they taste like it. Both also trigger sense memories of the season, however, with a subtlety, weight and flavor profile that make them perfect as an accompaniment to Thanksgiving dinner. Especially the pie course.

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