The featured beer painting of the day is of Alaskan Brewing Company’s Pumpkin Porter. I would have to say that pumpkin beer is the right ale to be drinking at this time of year. A Pumpkin Porter is a great Halloween beer and I am getting in the spirit of the next upcoming holiday. The dark grains in this beer remind me of the fall harvest in Alaska, and what a bountiful harvest it was! At my local farmer’s market I bought tomatoes, kohlrabi, beautiful spices, and carrots, but I didn’t see any pumpkins. I wonder why, because I know they grow well in Alaska, and some of them get enormous, like the cabbages. Twenty-four hours of daylight and rich volcanic soil can do that. The pumpkins can get so big that they have to be transported to the Alaska State Fair using a forklift! If you look at the label on this beer, you’ll see a truck carrying a colossal pumpkin. I bet this truck is hitting its payload! This year’s blue ribbon pumpkin at the Alaska State Fair was 1,235.5 lbs! That is one big gourd! The world record was broken this year in Mainz, Germany with a behemoth that weighed 2,096.6 lbs! The question that arises is what do you do with a pumpkin that large? I am imagining a huge brewing operation, a whole batch of pumpkin beer from the pulp! Or, if 1,000 homebrewers showed up, they could make a 1,000 five-gallon batches, and still have enough for everyone to have 1-2 lbs per batch. That’s a lot of pumpkin, really!
Cheers to Fall, and the great harvest that ensues on this side of the world! I hope you get some of Alaskan’s Pumpkin Porter — one of the best pumpkin beers I’ve had yet!
You can purchase this painting, or a limited-edition print at my Etsy shop.
Year of Beer 10.14. Pumpkin Porter by Alaskan Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.
Real Art Is Better! 