Finally had this gorgeous beer. I look forward to drinking @troublebrewing Pumpkin Brew every year. So good. So, in light of this deliciousness, I thought I would talk a bit about the history of pumpkin beer, and it like so very many things owes its existence to Native Americans

The colonizing Europeans were first introduced to pumpkins by the Native American people. Due to their wide availability/high sugar content, they were perfect for brewing. The first beers that used the fruit, this took the place of malt entirely due to the expense of import.

Robert Beverly Jr., author of A History of Virginia, In Four Parts, wrote in 1706 that ‘the richer sort generally brew their small beer with malt’  which has been imported from England

and that the ‘poorer sort brew their beer’ with things like molasses, ‘green stalks of Indian corn cut small’ and you guessed it, ‘with pompions,’ the early colonial term for pumpkins.

An early recipe exists from February of 1771, when the American Philosophical Society, founded by Benjamin Franklin himself, listed a recipe for pumpkin ale which called for the mashing of pumpkins to be ‘pressed as apples’ and then ‘hopped, culled, fermented etc as malted beer’.

And Samuel Peters, in 1791, declared in his General History of Connecticut, that the inhabitants made ‘good beer of pumpkins’ and that the fruit was ‘a great blessing’ and ‘held sacred’.

The use of pumpkin in beer largely died out in the 19th century when the cost of malt dropped and its availability rose. It was still used as a flavouring agent, however.

In the 1980s, Buffaol Bill's Brewery revived this style using one of George Washington's recipes

A few years ago, I wrote an article about it and had a lovely interview with @troublebrewing about the creation of their beer, which they make with their own pumpkins: https://www.thetaste.ie/autumn-brewed-discover-pumpkin-beer/

And @beerladiespod did episode number 2, all about seasonal fall brews, including this pumpkin beer!