Happy Fall people. Now that we’re well into the season (and the month of October), the presence of Halloween is starting to be felt. As much as I love summer, I do think that fall is the best drinking season. Fantastic seasonal beers are released, and as far as cocktails go, more complex and heavier mixes start to become more prevalent, both at bars, and in my bar. Going on that theme, I’m mixing up a drink that has a seasonal beer, and just so happens to be named after one of the best Charlie Brown specials: The Great Pumpkin from the Please Don’t Tell Cocktail Book:
The Great Pumpkin
2 oz. Southampton Pumpkin Ale
1 oz. Rittenhouse Bonded rye whiskey
1 oz. Laird ‘s bonded apple brandy
.5 oz Deep mountain grade B maple syrup
1 Whole egg
Add everything to a mixing glass and swirl to decarbonate the beer. Dry-shake, then shake with ice and strain into a chilled fizz glass. Garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.
A couple substitutions up front: Two Roads Roadsmary’s Baby pumpkin ale instead of the hard to find Southampton. I also continue to use the rye I got from Whiskey Acres in Illinois. The brandy is from Short Path, a local Massachusetts distiller as well.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, this is fantastic. It’s kind of like an October eggnog. It has a very smooth texture, since you get zero carbonation from the beer. This is also the second week in a row featuring an egg, but the difference between the two is night and day. I attribute that to the addition of a whole egg as opposed to just the white this time. The difference in preparation is subtle, but obviously makes a huge difference.
The brandy and rye get a little lost initially. As the sip progresses, the brandy starts to come in towards the end. The two dark spirits however become much more prevalent the more you drink it down. The nutmeg garnish is a nice touch as well. The spice zip the nutmeg provides is a nice opener that quickly mellows. The maple syrup comes in at the end, and I think is an excellent sweetener here. Simple syrup just wouldn’t fit. Maple syrup has a deeper flavor profile that just plain simple syrup.
The pumpkin flavor the beer brings is nice, but I think could be better. Perhaps the Southampton has more of a pumpkin flavor that Roadsmary’s Baby. That’s not to say that Roadsmary’s Baby is bad. Not at all! In fact, this quickly became a favorite seasonal pumpkin beer. By the way, my top pumpkin beer is PumKing by Southern Tier Brewing.
The drink itself doesn’t taste very boozy, which normally puts a drink in a dangerously delicious category, however this is so heavy and thick, that you probably can’t have enough to start feeling the effects of all the booze in it.
All in all, I think I’ve found a new favorite seasonal cocktail. Keep your pumpkin spice lattes. I’ll be sipping Great Pumpkins in the pumpkin patch with Linus.
(Banner image found here)
So does that egg cook in your stomach or only in your esophagus on the way back up?
For fall cocktails, I recommend getting a bottle of allspice dram (sometimes called pimento dram). Works in variants of the Manhattan, Negroni, Old Fashioned, as well as some specialty cocktails.
That sounds delicious. I’ll have to look for some!
The brand I know is St. Elizabeth. BevMo has it.
Right now I’m drinking an Old Fashioned variant, with sugar, orange and angostura bitters, Allspice dram, Frangelico, and bourbon.
Also, I’m eagerly awaiting the Blumpkin cocktail.
So, question about the egg. Normally, it’s not recommended to consume raw eggs because of possible food poisoning. Are we saying the alcohol kills the germs and thus we’re good to go?
I think it’s a combo of (1) raw eggs aren’t really that risky unless you’re immune-compromised; (2) alcohol killing the contaminants; and (3) alcohol causing us not to give a shit.
Pumpkin hate aside, this looks delicious.
Pumpkins are foul-smelling bombs of disgusting goop, and should only be eaten as a last-resort food of desperation. Jack-o-Lantern carving is a corruption of the original (positive) practice of stabbing them repeatedly with very sharp knives. I grudgingly admire the pumpkin farmer, who has discovered a way to get people to pay him to harvest his crop.
I love that “pumpkin” pie is usually made with squash.
Technically, isn’t pumpkin a type of squash?
You’re out of your gourd.