Pumpkin Pie Ale Returns, and a Hot Iron Is Going Into It

Johnson City Brewing Company's annual pumpkin batch is back. Pumpkin Pie Ale returns Wednesday, September 16, on draft and in four-packs at both the Walnut Street and Boones Creek taprooms.

The recipe rests on three things: a pie crusty specialty malt, real pumpkin, and what the brewery calls plenty of pumpkin pie spice. The can carries the same claim, reading "ale brewed with real pumpkin and spices," and lists 6.5 percent in 16-ounce cans.

The malt is the part worth pausing on. A lot of pumpkin beers handle the crust half of the concept by adding something crust-adjacent late in the process. Johnson City is getting it from the grain bill instead. Malts described that way are typically kilned into the biscuit range, where the grain itself carries a toasted, bready character without any help. It keeps the pie reference inside the beer's structure rather than sitting on top of it.

The poking

The release lands the same night as the first Beer Poking event at the Walnut Street taproom. The brewery has run poking before, but not at this location, and co-founder and brewer Eric Latham is leading this one. The taproom schedule puts him on at 5 p.m. on release night.

The technique involves lowering a hot iron rod into the beer. Johnson City describes it as a centuries-old tradition that caramelizes the beer's natural sugars, and says the result is a cool, ready-to-drink beer under a warm, marshmallow-like foam. The brewery also says Pumpkin Pie Ale is a good beer to try it on.

That pairing tracks. Caramelizing sugar pushes a beer toward its toasted and confectionery end, which is the same direction the biscuit malt and the spice bill were already headed. Running the iron through a pumpkin beer stacks the effect rather than fighting it, which is not true of every beer on a taproom list.

Pumpkin Pie Ale is available Wednesday at both locations, on draft and in four-packs.