Of course, if he had any in his refrigerator, it was well-hidden behind the milk, eggs and lettuce, so I had to fund my own research.
I sampled Blue Moon Pumpkin Ale, Shipyard's Pumpkinhead Ale and Saranac's pumpkin offering, which was billed as "as enjoyable as a pumpkin pie."
I shouldn't have waited so long. They were a nice change from the regular lagers I'd been drinking, each a little different from the other, maybe like the difference between your mother's pumpkin pie and your aunt's.
Shipyard was dry and spicy, while Blue Moon was fruity, a bright amber color. Saranac was fuller, darker and heavier than the other two.
(By the way, the packaging was fun, too. Saranac has a jack-o-lantern on its six-pack, and Shipyard, boasting a horseman with a jack-o-lantern head, even offers a Pumpkinhead Ale T-shirt and pint glass in its online store.)
I have to admit that I've been surprised in recent years to see pumpkin ale on the package store shelves, but a review at BeerWineOnline claims that pumpkin ale dates back to the early colonists in New England and suggests that using pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg in the brewing process makes perfect sense.
That and my own sampling have me convinced, but I'm willing to do more research this Halloween season to see if I can find even greater pumpkin ales. Any suggestions on where to look, what else to sample?