Homebrewing a Pumpkin-spiced Coffee Porter - Craft Beer Locations Near You

At this point, I’m pretty sure that the outrage around pumpkin beer is manufactured. Sure, there was a time where September and October was awash with them and finding yourself a straight-up dark beer became a mission; sure the seasonal creep that has led to pumpkin beer in August is ridiculous.

But the main issue people have with pumpkin beer – the heavy use of spice, the fact that pumpkin is the least tasty of the gourd family, that it is pure theatre really – has been lost thanks to the invention and proliferation of the Pastry Stout. Why people draw the line at the addition of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg while lapping up the milky, sticky residue of a beer-cum-ice-cream-flavouring syrup is beyond me.

I love both those styles of beer, in moderation, and we wanted to prove that they come from the same excitable place with our latest homebrewing odyssey.

We started with a trip to see Andy Parker, owner of Elusive Brew/homebrew hero/pumpkin beer lover, to pick up tips on the best way to brew this style of beer. We learned a huge amount about the ingredients and the process, as well as how quickly this style can get out of balance. We then went home and promptly designed a recipe that was likely to go…completely out of balance.

Episode I

We wanted to make something reminiscent of the Original Pastry drink – the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. In the end, we didn’t get that close but we did make a wonderfully warming, fairly balanced and very gingerbread like beer that I will 100% be making again next year with some tweaks to the coffee level (more, more, more).

This was a really fun beer to brew with lots of new skills and processes. The pumpkin isn’t vital but we think it added some caramel notes, and it’s pretty scalable up and down in terms of ABV thanks to the bold flavours. So here is the recipe! Enjoy, and watch out for scorched pumpkin on your element.