Summer ends and in that brief period before the winter cold sets in, there are, as you probably know, all the seasonal beers of autumn well worth tasting. Pumpkin ale is the most famous. Pumpkin is of course most closely associated with Halloween and is harvested in autumn. The fruit can be sliced as is, roasted, made into a puree; it’s good to go whatever the shape it takes. But pumpkin isn’t all; spice is a characteristic of this season’s beer. There are a variety of spices that make for key ingredients, including clove, cinnamon, nutmeg—the same spices used in pumpkin pie. There’s not really any hard and fast definition of what constitutes a pumpkin ale and for that very reason perhaps you’ll get the distinct flavors of home-cooking.

Harvest Moon’s pumpkin ale is mild in flavor, avoiding too much sweetness for a brew also featuring notes of clove, nutmeg and cinnamon. Its finish lingers on the tongue refreshingly.

No conversation of autumn seasonal beer is complete without mention of American breweries, which make quite a few of them. But when it comes to autumn, the “harvest season” floats to mind, making it the season for “harvest ales.” Southern Tier in New York makes an extra special bitter harvest ale with lots of fresh hops. The dramatic hop nose follows with a great balance of full malt flavor and delightful hop bitterness that holds steady until the finish. “Not So Mild Ale Harvest Brew,” a collaboration between Shiga Kogen and Nøgne Ø, also uses fresh hops, but with an invigorating bite on the draw. These beers are just great for sipping slowly in autumn.

Other beers that celebrate autumn include North Island’s (Hokkaido) apple beer that sources its apples locally and Shiroyama’s (Kagoshima) wheat beer, which uses rather sugary Tsuruga Steuben grapes.

Experiencing the autumn season through its beer quite simply makes drinking more fun. And when you find an autumn beer that you like, you look forward to the season coming around again—and that adds to the pleasure all over, doesn’t it?

by Sugiyama Miho

This article was published in Japan Beer Times # () and is among the limited content available online. Order your copy through our online shop or download the digital version from the iTunes store to access the full contents of this issue.