About the Beer: I Can’t Even

By Greg Carlson

Ah, pumpkin beer - the on again/off again darling of the craft beer world. For a single category to encompass such whimsy, nostalgia, spite, and ambiguity is no small accomplishment, especially considering some (including ours!) aren’t even brewed with pumpkin. 

Yes, let’s be clear - No Gourds Were Harmed In The Making Of This Beer*. This is a pumpkin spice beer, and that is fine because pumpkin doesn’t have much flavor, anyway. The spices have always been the star of the show with pumpkin beer, and I like to keep things White Stripes-level stripped down around here.

That being said, “stripped down” might not be the first phrase that comes to mind when considering a Pumpkin Spice Latte Stout. That’s a lot of adjuncts! Working with coffee, lactose, and pumpkin pie spice isn’t just a balancing act - it’s three balancing acts. Brewing with them doesn’t exactly require mastering the most challenging techniques, but adding too much of something turns a feature into a bug, and being too careful makes you a liar. Can’t have that. 

Here’s what we did:

We started with a strong but simple milk stout, comprised of some familiar English pale, caramel, and black malts, with a guest appearance by Valley Malt Coffee Oats (I liked them in our first coffee beer, Snoopy Cap, so may as well play it again), and the requisite lactose, for the requisite creamy mouthfeel. 

From there, we added a bold but sensible amount of brand name pumpkin pie spice, because I do not fix what is not broken. Spice purveyors have been trusted by pie professionals for years, so fuck if I’m gonna pretend to know better.

And finally, we once again put our faith in our friends at Acoustic Java, and cold steeped their beans right in the beer shortly before packaging for the freshest, brightest coffee flavor and aroma. Unlike the selection process we employed when designing Snoopy Cap - sampling over 20 varieties over the course of two cuppings - we simply decided to showcase the current dark roast being offered in our taproom, Voyager Blend! With a full head of cocoa and caramel notes, it’s actually the perfect coffee for a stout. How serendipitous.

What results is a nice, full-bodied stout that so predictably rings with coffee and pumpkin spice aroma. Full of flavor, not overloaded with flavoring. Please drink all of it before Thanksgiving.

*I did have acorn squash for dinner one night while the beer was in the tank. Sue me, it was delicious.