A Submerge guide to pumpkin libations
Words by Adam Saake – Photos by Nicholas Wray
Hey look! It’s fall. Oh, there it goes. Living in Sacramento, you know that fall makes a quick appearance yet there are so many ways to indulge. Having your checklist done early, your Halloween costume pre-ordered and a trip to Apple Hill in permanent marker on the calendar is a good start, but there are still a few things that fly by under the radar. Pumpkin beer is one of them and if you’re not quick to grab a six-pack off the end cap, you might miss out on some limited edition suds that can be quite delicious. What once seemed like a novelty has now become a tradition for some serious beer drinkers and the choices have multiplied. Ales, lagers and even ciders are popping up on the shelves and each offer unique takes on the flavors that this iconic orange squash has to offer.
America’s Original Pumpkin Ale
Buffalo Bill’s Brewery, Hayward, Calif.
Buffalo Bill’s Brewery offers a quality pumpkin ale that is firmly centered on drinkability and not necessarily pumpkin overload. Not to say that pumpkin isn’t the focus here, but on a scale of Linus to Return to Oz, this is somewhere in the Silver Bend Pumpkin Patch. The first initial sips yield the pumpkin and then the luster slightly fades, but still very refreshing. Clocking in at a little over 5 percent alcohol and 11 IBUs (international bittering unit), even grandma might have one with you to celebrate the holidays.
The Hayward, Calif.-based brewery who are also known for their Alimony Ale and Orange Blossom Cream Ale have had their feet in the microbrew market since 1983. These guys definitely know what they’re doing with their pumpkin beer, so you’re safe to grab a six-pack and enjoy.
Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale
Blue Moon Brewing Co., Golden, Colo.
Surely the most recognizable name we’ll mention here in our Pumpkin Beer spotlight, and either you love it or you hate it. Blue Moon, a Miller/Coors product, hit the scene around 1995 at The Sandlot Brewery in Boulder, Colo. (then just owned by Coors) and it didn’t take long before it had made its way into many watering holes around the country.
Originally launched in 2006, the Harvest Pumpkin Ale has had a facelift this year and according to Miller/Coors has been “re-launched and reformulated this year.” What does that mean? Well instead of brewing the beer with just pumpkin and cloves, they add nutmeg and allspice as well. That and the label become a little less artsy and lot more branded. What you get is a quite enjoyable beer with a good body, smooth finish and great balance between the hops, pumpkin and spices. Coming in at 5.7 percent alcohol, Harvest Pumpkin Ale is a step up in intensity but not overpowering and certainly a beer you can enjoy more than one of.
Pumpkin Lager Beer
Lakefront Brewery Inc., Milwaukee, Wisc.
Located on the Milwaukee River in Milwaukee, Wisc.–pronounced mealy-walk-ay if you’re Alice Cooper–Lakefront Brewery has been crafting quality microbrews since 1987. The brewery itself is a huge tourist attraction to the point where sold-out brewery tours gave way to online ticket sales. Still independently owned and cranking out large volumes of beer, boasting over 20 different selections, Lakefront is testament to the little guy doing big things.
Their Pumpkin Lager Beer, apparently inspired by a Thomas Jefferson recipe that brewery owner Russ Klisch stumbled upon, is as close to pumpkin pie in a beer form that you might find. Pour one into a glass and you’ll immediately notice that the nose jumps out; heavy with pumpkin, cinnamon and clove aromas. The mouth feel echoes the nose; rich yet goes down easy and the use of Caramel and Munich malts lend to the texture and depth of this fun drinking beer. Slightly copper in color and 6 percent alcohol, you might spill a few family secrets after a few of these.
Pugsley’s Signature Series: Smashed Pumpkin Ale
Shipyard Brewing Co., Portland, Maine
Caution: double entendre approaching! Shipyard Brewing Company’s co-founder and Master Brewer Alan Pugsley has outdone himself with this Smashed Pumpkin Ale. Not only will you be “smashed” after a few of these, but your head will feel like Gallagher took his sledgehammer to it in the morning. Packed with so much spice, pumpkin, hops and malts and 9 percent alcohol, this pumpkin beer is truly a trick and a treat. Submerge asked local beer guru Mark Neuhauser of Pangaea Two Brews Cafe what he thought and he called it “very sweet…pumpkin pie in a bottle.” Pugsley uses three different malts including Pale Ale, Wheat and Light Munich along with two different kinds of hops; Willamette and Hallertau. The high alcohol gives it the backbone and bite, making this beer perfect for any of your spice filled holiday foods.
Of course, it’s no surprise that Shipyard would blow the stem off the pumpkin beer category. These guys are known for amazing craft beers that they’ve been perfecting since 1992. They’re Maine’s largest brewery that also makes Capt’n Eli’s Soda, a craft soda that comes in seven different flavors and are the 19th largest craft brewery in the country. All that from little ol’ Maine, go figure. On top of that, Pugsley is kind of a rock star in the East Coast microbrew world. Back in the ‘80s he bounced around and helped establish quite a number of breweries as well helped design and build breweries in the United Kingdom.
Hard Pumpkin Cider
Ace Cider: The California Cider Company, Sebastopol, Calif.
Alright, here’s your wild card. Ace Cider based out of Sebastopol, Calif., has been making cider for 15 years. Before there were really cider options, there was Ace and over the years they’ve stayed amongst the companies making really high quality, gluten free and delicious ciders. This year is the first year that the company has released their Hard Pumpkin Cider, an apple-based cider that is blended with pumpkin and allspice. Jeffrey House, owner and master cider maker, says that he made 10,000 gallons this year and it’s already all gone.
“People are racing to drink it,” says House.
With the popularity of the product, House says they’ll more than likely double or even triple production next year to meet the demand. The cider is quite a unique product that doesn’t scream pumpkin but merely suggests it. The allspice is subtle and you pick up the apple on the finish along with an interesting aftertaste reminiscent of pear candy. This cider is 5 percent alcohol and quite low in sugar content, 9 grams per 12-ounce bottle. If you’re really aiming for pumpkin, I’m not sure if this is for you but overall a tasty cider that fits in perfectly with their existing line.
These beers and ciders can be found at Total Wine, Whole Foods, Corti Bros and other select specialty markets. Call ahead because they are seasonal and will disappear quick.
Still thirsty for more pumpkin beer? Pangaea Two Brews Café has Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale on draft. Pangaea was lucky enough to acquire three of the six kegs allocated to the entire Sacramento area, so get it while it’s here. Or, head over Alley Katz and try a Double Pumpkin Ale on draft from Sam Adams.
Our Region’s Top Breweries Make Beers Exclusively for Sacramento Beer Week
Words by Adam Saake
Since I covered the inaugural Sacramento Beer Week last year, our area’s thirst for quality suds (and ciders) has grown exponentially. Last year, the focus was on all the local breweries that had shut down and how our beer scene was changing as a result. Well, boy has it changed and damn is it good. Many new faces have arrived on the scene and the old faces are still making and selling great beer. Alley Katz on 21st and O streets opened early this year and immediately caught the attention of serious beer drinkers when they heard the bar boasts close to 200 beers between bottles and draft. Owner Geronimo Avelar‘s neighborhood bar atmosphere isn’t a novelty shop for spendy beer drinkers. Affordable selections like $3.50 Anchor Steam bottles or 32 oz. mugs filled with draft selections for around $7 are going to keep this place alive with business.
Our beer scene is thriving and the events planned for this year’s Sacramento Beer Week is evidence alone. Feb. 25 through March 6, this celebration of “Sacramento beer culture” features over 200 events that include special dinners with food and beer pairings, meet and greets with brewers, pint nights galore and even demonstrations of how to make your own beer. New this year are two anchor events: the Capital Beerfest at Cal Expo and the Sacramento Brewers Showcase at the Crocker Art Museum. The latter will feature all the local breweries as well as “sneak previews of breweries opening soon.” This event also features tastings of specially brewed beers by Sierra Nevada, Lagunitas and Sudwerk that were created just for Sacramento Beer Week. Lucky for you, we’ve got the skinny on these tasty suds.
Lagunitas
Paradime Sac
There’s an episode of The Simpsons in which Homer meets his half-brother Herb whose existence he had no knowledge of. Turns out the guy owns a successful car company and subsequently, Homer is given the opportunity to design his very own car for the company. Problem is Homer’s an idiot, not a designer, and really only good at drinking Duff. The car ends up being a monstrosity that sinks Herb’s company, and he never speaks to the family again. Classic television of our childhoods becomes the perfect anecdote for Lagunitas’ limited-run Sacramento beer that they are brewing for our upcoming Beer Week.
Now imagine for a second that Lagunitas is Herb’s car company–successful and pumping out great product. Easy, right? But instead of Homer’s Duff palate and moronic sensibility, you have a lineup of Sacramento-area beer aficionados that include Kimio Bazett and Jon Modrow, owners of the Golden Bear; Michael Ng, general manager of One Speed; Gary Sleppy, owner of The Shack; Dylan Mauro, owner of Samuel Horne’s in Folsom; Rick Sellers of Pacific Brew News; and others whose names were drawn from a hat (seriously). The amount of Lagunitas accounts around Sacramento that have so loyally supported the company over the years were too high in number, and so a democratic process was necessary to select the intimate group that would travel to the brewery and participate in the process of brewing one very limited edition Lagunitas beer just for Sacramento. A 10-person van full of Freeport Bakery pastries and the Sacramento bunch arrived at the brewery in Petaluma, Calif., where a day of beer tasting and brewing, most importantly, was ahead of them.
“Say: LAH-GOO-KNEE-TUSS” is written on the label of the Hop Stoopid Ale in front of me while I write (research). A picture of the owner’s dog is on the cap of every bottle, along with a frantic story on the label that attempts to explain the beer you will be enjoying. With playful names like the aforementioned and others like Brown Shugga’, Little Sumpin’ Wild and Gnarly Wine, it’s clear that Lagunitas, the brewery with a tumultuous past of a shut-down and humorous run-ins with the ABC, doesn’t take certain aspects of their business too seriously.
“It was cool how casual, yet precise the brew master was,” recalled Bazett.
If what’s inside the bottle is carefully crafted and has years of trial and error to back up its progress, the rest is about having fun and enjoying making the beer. The guys at Lagunitas are very good at making beer and making fun. Part of that process is experimenting with different concoctions and seeing what kind of beers they can come up with. Often these are very limited runs and may not even see a life outside of the tap house at the brewery. You’re lucky if you get your lips on one of them because you may never drink it again as they may never make it again. That’s why when Lagunitas proposed the idea of a limited run beer specially brewed for Sacramento Beer Week, many were excited at the idea.
“Justin Seybold, our regional Lagunitas rep, had approached me a while back about having a bunch of us out to develop a beer for Sacramento Beer Week,” recalls Modrow. “I was freaking out over it.”
Although everyone at the brewery that day agreed on crafting a beer that was unique for Sacramento, naturally, opinions varied on what exactly the beer should taste like.
“We really tried to think of what the Sacramento customer base would like,” says Mauro.
Each had their say by filling out a survey that was given to them in advance. Questions about the flavor profile were on the survey, asking about hops and malts and light and dark and all the elements that make up the DNA of beer. This would help Lagunitas interpret the flavor profile that was collectively on all of their minds.
“Although I love a big hop-y beer, which is what a lot of beer snobs are into, we can’t forget what Sacramento is into,” Modrow told Submerge. “Blue Moon is one of the biggest selling brands in Sacramento and we’re the fifth biggest [Miller] Highlife account in the country. So, something that’s lighter and more on the malt end and a little less hop-y probably suits Sacramento a little bit more.”
Bazett’s opinion leaned more toward something that was “kind of hop-y and malty and bittery.” He feels that the winter seasonal beers come and go too quickly and likened his ideal profile to something more like Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale.
Both Bazett and Modrow ended up getting a little of what they wanted and it seems that according to the surveys, the varying opinions all came together in a very harmonious compromise as well. Seven different malts were chosen for the beer and the head brewer brought out six different kinds of hops for everyone to try.
“We all tasted the hops and discussed them and decided to do a real malt-based light beer,” said Seybold.
The day was a real hands-on experience for all those involved. The brew master brought out 10 oz. cups with not only the hops but all kinds of malts and ryes and grains and they snacked on the ingredients and got a taste for some of the flavors that could potentially go into their beer. One of the more unique grains used for the beer was the inclusion of rye. Although rye isn’t a new ingredient, Mauro explained from his alehouse in Folsom, it’s still “not widely used.” In fact, Seybold says that this is the first batch of beer with rye in it that Lagunitas has produced on their new brewing system and they haven’t made a beer with rye, period, in over 13 years. The rye will give the beer a little spice and play well off all the different malts.
“The style is an imperial rye ale, and it’s going be super dark and super dry and have about 77 IBUs,” said Seybold.
IBU stands for International Bittering Unit and is basically a scale for how bitter a beer is. Typically the more malt that is used in a beer (usually darker beers like porters or stouts) the more IBUs as this helps balance out the beer.
“We talked about it and we ended up with seven different malts and we didn’t want it to be super hop-y since it was going to be so malty. We just wanted a lingering bitterness,” said Seybold.
And in case you’re wondering, the alcohol will come out to about 7 percent, making that all sevens, something that was not planned. Lagunitas decided to call the beer Paradime Sac and about 80 kegs will be made and distributed to the various proprietors’ locations who participated as well as those that were not selected to participate in the brewing process. Lagunitas has planned a synchronized tapping of all the kegs at 4:20 p.m. on Tuesday, March 1. This idea, originally done for Chicago’s beer week (where Lagunitas first brewed a special batch), was a huge success. Seybold anticipates that Sacramento’s Beer Week will enjoy the same success.
Look out for information regarding the location of these limited edition kegs during Beer Week so you too can try a pint or two of Lagunitas’ Paradigm Sac. Who knows, maybe we’ll see it on shelves.
Sierra Nevada
Sierra Nevada
Sloughhouse Pale Ale
At the end of 2010, the EPA awarded Sierra Nevada Brewing Company with “Green Business of the Year,” a huge achievement that put the brewery back in the spotlight as one of the leaders in micro-brewing. From renewable energy to water conservation, to a zero-waste program, it’s good to feel good about drinking their beer. And, well, it’s really good beer. I can’t recall meeting a Sierra Nevada I didn’t enjoy, and that’s why I’m most excited to taste their Sacramento beer they are making special for Beer Week. That’s right, not one but two of California’s leading micro-breweries are busy concocting something just for us. This time, instead of the usual cast of characters behind the helm of the flavor profile, there’s just one very involved Rick Sellers. He’s the founder of Pacific Brew News, a WordPress site with all things beer, the former editor for Draft magazine, co-founder of Odonata Beer Company with Peter Hoey and an avid home brewer himself and most recently one of the faces behind Sacramento Beer Week. The guy knows beer, to say the least. He also got to know the brewers at Sierra Nevada well enough to pitch them an idea for a beer.
“Sierra Nevada does something called beer camp where they invite restaurant owners or people of the industry to come to brewery for a few days and make a beer of their own,” explained Sellers. “I did a little beer camp of my own where I did a black IPA and so I knew the process and I knew their brewery and the brewers.”
And as simple as that, Sellers approached the brewing company a few months back about them brewing the Sacramento Beer Week beer and they were excited at the idea.
“When I approached Sierra Nevada, they didn’t blink,” says Sellers. “Their mentality was Sacramento has been so good to us for so many years. There was no negotiating; I asked them and they immediately said yes.”
The concept of the beer was to have a low alcohol, very hop-y beer with complex flavors; something light but with body. It’s sort of like a guilty pleasure with a conscious.
“It’s something that people can enjoy more than a pint of without being in danger of DUI.”
This is a departure from what most beer drinkers geek out on and what a lot of pubs and bars are serving. The popularity right now lies in the high alcohol Belgian beers that carry intense flavors and aromas. Two of those and you’re lit. Sellers says that making a beer that is low in alcohol yet very tasty is something a “little uncommon in these parts.” The way to achieve the hoppiness and aroma, Sellers explained, was by adding a lot of hops late in the brewing process. So with this idea in mind he headed to the brewery and while there, he was able to play around with the hops that he wanted to use for the beer as well as the IBUs (Remember those? Think bitterness).
“We used a hop called Citra, which is what they use in their beer called Torpedo,” explains Sellers. “And we also used a hop called Strissel Spelt, which to be honest with you I’ve never heard of. It’s a nice European hop that has some peppery, sort of floral notes to it.”
There are many different kinds of hops to choose from like Cascade, Centennial, Willamette; the list goes on. Choosing the hops for your beer is like spices in your cooking; they determine a lot of the flavor, coupled with the malts and grains. And one ingredient that the Sierra Nevada beer will have in common with the Lagunitas is that coincidentally, they both will have rye.
“They added some rye to it to round out the edges with a little peppery, almost chewy texture to it,” says Sellers. “It’s going to play with people’s palates a little bit.”
The beer, which Sellers suggested be called Highway 16, is in reference to the highway that runs through Sloughhouse, Calif. Ultimately, the beer was named Sloughhouse Pale Ale.
“At one point, Sloughhouse was one of the biggest hop growing areas in the country,” says Sellers. “I wanted to pay tribute to Sacramento’s history of hop growing.”
Sellers spoke fondly of Sacramento’s beer history, citing letters written by Mark Twain who stepped off the train to a town full of saloons. His beer collaboration with Sierra Nevada will help those memories live on and hopefully inspire new generations of beer makers to keep pushing the envelope of fermentation sciences with nods to the past.
Here’s to Sloughhouse Pale Ale, and I’ll see you at Beer Week!
Sudwerk
Sacpiper Wee Heavy
Sudwerk is in on the Beer Week brews too with a specially crafted ale that’s done in a Scottish-style. What’s extra cool about this darker, high alcohol beer is that the hops used were sourced locally from Penryn, Calif. at Jordan Family Farms, which is also known for growing mandarin oranges and wine grapes. Appropriately named Sacpiper Wee Heavy, this Scotch ale goes through a long boil process, which produces a sweet carmelization. This will be a big boy, so save room for dessert. You can try Sudwerk’s Sacpiper along with the other specialty brews at the Sacramento Brewers Showcase at the new Crocker Art Museum.
Put down the PBR for a few days and enjoy Sacramento Beer Week Feb. 25 – March 6. Go to Sacramentobeerweek.com for schedule and info.
