This weekend I will be tasting my pumpkin beer. It has been seven weeks since I brewed it. I enjoyed the pumpkin beer I made last year but decided to use go for a little stronger pumpkin flavor by using 2 large cans. Today I found a 2011 Serious Eats article that says pumpkin beers have a long history in the US.

Far from being a modern invention of the craft beer scene, pumpkin beers have a long history in the US. Samuel Stearns’ The American herbal; or, Materia medica (published in 1801), name-checked pumpkin beer just after porter and ale. Stearns considered pumpkin beer especially healthful, noting:

Different kinds of beer, ale, &c. are often prepared according to the prescriptions of the physicians, all of which, as well as pumpkin and bran beer, partake of the virtues of the ingredients put into such liquors."

Follow the link to find out more about the history of pumpkin beer.