Gourd in beers: who's drinkin' 'em?

Iron Hill's Chris LaPierre with bourbon pumpkin ale

Talk pumpkin ales and you can quickly divide craft beer enthusiasts into two camps: those who annually look forward to the brews that have become the dominant fall seasonal these days, and the one-and-done folks who are happy to move on after drinking a single pint.

But there's a third group that falls into the mix: the cocktail and chardonnay crowd who look forward to pumpkin ales as their moment for crossing over in to the beer world.

"I definitely think there are people out there that the only beer they'll drink this year is pumpkin beer," says Iron Hill's brewer Chris LaPierre. "This is a kind of beer that wine drinkers, martini drinkers, people that say they don't drink beer ... you know, don't like beer ... (they) will drink pumpkin beer."

Iron Hill taps its flight of pumpkin ales this Saturday, and that third group drinkers are very much represented in the crowd that has made IH's Welcome, Great Pumpkin event the chart-topper as far as the brewpub's lineup of events through the year goes. In fact, in terms of sales, the Great Pumpkin event has eclipsed IH's  Belgium Comes to West Chester Belgian beer fest held at the nine-pub chain's West Chester, Pa., location each January. (Featured beers include The Great Imperial Pumpkin Ale, Pumpkin Ale and Bourbon Imperial Pumpkin Ale. For the record, IH's West Chester location does a Gathering of the Gourds pumpkin beer salute.)

It helps that South Jersey's reception of IH in 2009 turned the company's Maple Shade location its busiest. But for all of the factions that surround pumpkin beer, there is definitely something about the style that people find alluring.

"Just look at how crazy people are about it," Chris says. "Look at the coffee shops, everyone's got a pumpkin latte. I'm sure all the fast-food places probably have a pumpkin milkshake, or whatever. People just go nuts for it.

"Outside of brewpubs, look at how much earlier pumpkin beers are coming out. Every year they're out two or three weeks earlier. Everybody's trying to get theirs out early, trying to get it out before the competition. There's just something about that style."

Pumpkin beer is a balancing act for IH Maple Shade. It's appearance on the taps collides with Oktoberfest. The märzen is still a hot ticket, because Oktoberfest hews to tradition, as far as style goes. It's almost always a copper-colored strong lager, with its sweetness held in check by a dose of noble hops.

Pumpkin beers, on the other hand, get to spread out.

"I used to say that Oktoberfest is our fastest-selling seasonal. In a way, it still is because it's not cannibalized the way pumpkin is – imperial pumpkin, Belgian pumpkin," Chris says. "They're all going to steal from each other a little bit, whereas Oktoberfest is just one style. It makes my life pretty difficult for the fact that those are by far our two fastest-selling seasonals, and they both happen to be out at the same time."

That said, Chris does try to ensure Maple Shade's pumpkin ale makes a reprise deep into the fall, after Halloween. Call it pumpkin management.

"We used to have our pumpkin beer on just before Halloween, to just after Thanksgiving. It's popularity has made that difficult to do. I have trouble keeping up with it," he says. "So what I do now is put one on just before Halloween. Then there's usually a little bit of a gap, then we try to get another batch in and bring it back for Thanksgiving time."

Spice vs. pumpkin flavor
A debate that involves pumpkin beer is whether the beer flavors are enhanced by the pumpkin, the spices (i.e. clove, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon) or both. Chris' take is: If a brewer indeed uses pumpkin in the mash (not all do, some go the spices alone), that flavor will come through. (However, he concedes he's never put it to a blind taste test. And for the record, Chris uses about 300 pounds of pie pumpkins, that after processing for brewing purposes end up as about 80 pounds in the mash for a 12-barrel batch.)

"Certainly if you get a pumpkin latte or burn a pumpkin candle, there's not going to be any pumpkin in it. It is all about the spices" he says. "A lot of people don't bother putting pumpkin in their pumpkin beers, because they say all people are looking for is the spice anyway.

"My argument is, if you smell what this restaurant smelled like at 8 o'clock in the morning when they're roasting the pumpkins up in the convection ovens, there's no way that flavor's not carrying over into the beer. I do think there's more substance to it."

Homebrew Day, the video

This year's video from National Homebrew Day/AHA Big Brew, shot May 7th in the back lot at Iron Hill brewpub in Maple Shade, where the year-old Barley Legal Homebrewers club pretty much calls headquarters.

Special thanks to Chris LaPierre at Iron Hill and Tim Kelly from the Tun Tavern.

Remember to support your local homebrew shop.

And brewery.

Cheers.

That new Iron Hill tank

Call it a birthday present to the brewery and another canvas for the artistes who work there.

Even before Iron Hill was throwing that one-year anniversary party last month in Maple Shade, the folks there were doing something for the next year and beyond, as well as giving the two guys who create the beer – head brewer Chris LaPierre and assistant brewer Jeff Ramirez – more leeway to practice their craft.

A 30-barrel fermenter was installed on the penultimate day of June, muscling up the brewpub's capacity by about 25 percent. (Iron Hill opened with six single fermenters and a double; the new addition gives them two doubles.)

More tank space, yes, but Chris sizes things up a little differently.

"I don't really look at it as a boost in capacity though. It would certainly boost our capacity if our goal were to crank out as much beer as possible," Chris said via email today. "It's more about making it a little easier on Jeff and I to keep up, and more so about making it possible to brew more specialty lagers and slow-fermenting beers."

Like a brace of brews fresh to Iron Hill's Maple Shade digs: The Cannibal (Belgian golden ale) and Saison (Blegian farmhouse), both national gold medal winners for Iron Hill that need two months' fermenter time. "That's why we haven't brewed The Cannibal or Saison in this location until now," Chris says. "The new tank is what made those beers possible."

In the run-up to the 2010 Great American Beer Festival (Sept. 16-18 in Denver), The Cannibal and Saisaon will get tapped next Wednesday along with two other brews, Caprice (American Belgian ale) and Hopfenweizen (Bavarian wheat), all of which figure into Iron Hill's GABF entries for this year.

Contests aside, you might think it's the sign of a red-hot business to be expanding before the first anniversary. But, again, there's a business logic at play here.

"We usually undersize our breweries by a bit when we first open, figuring it's easier and more financially sound to buy and install a new tank if things are busy, than to sell and remove one if its not," Chris points out. "Also its much better for morale to install a new one than take one out!"

Iron Hill Maple Shade, a year later

Iron Hill will mark the first-year anniversary of its Maple Shade brewpub on Saturday with a fitting soiree that runs from 1 to 5 p.m.

That's brewer Chris LaPierre in the video above, shot June 26th during the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild festival. Below is what Chris put out in his email notice to Iron Hill devotees and mug club members about Saturday's happenings:

As usual we'll show our appreciation with a complimentary buffet from 2-3 p.m. and raffling off a slew of prizes at 4 p.m. As for the beer, (can't forget the beer!) we've got a lot of special stuff saved up for you. ... we'll be tapping our Anniversary Ale (Sour Cherry Belgian Dubbel), Christmas in July (our Winter Warmer that's been aging in a used Bourbon barrel since the holidays), and vintage kegs of English Strong Ale and Flemish Red. I've even got a special cask for you (I haven't yet decided whether to tap the last firkin of Dark Situation or the last pin of our Bourbon Quad).

Follow this link to see what it was like on that inaugural day of business when Iron Hill opened its first location in New Jersey and became the first new brewing enterprise in the Garden State since Krogh's up in Sparta jumped into the game in 1999 with a 5-barrel system.

Iron Hill's reputation with its eight locations (spread among Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey) is one of great beer. But its backstory is about three Jersey guys who had to leave the Garden State to pursue their vision just to be able to return to their home state with that vision. (Are you listening Gov. Christie? IH's saga concerning high-cost, commerce-unfriendly New Jersey is not unique.)

But the expansion has been rewarding.

The Maple Shade location has become one of Iron Hill's busiest (are you sorry you spurned them like you did, Sagemore plaza in Marlton?), drawing a lot of beer enthusiasts from throughout the South Jersey region. And that's happened despite the rather confounding interchanges with Routes 73 and 41 that lead to the brewpub.

Iron Hill's success says something else about South Jersey: That it truly was looking for another player in its beer scene.

And South Jersey scored big time.

In the Shade with Iron Hill's Chris Lapierre

Iron Hill’s Chris Lapierre will notch a dozen years as a pro brewer this summer, around the time the restaurant and brewery opens its Maple Shade location with him at the helm as brewmaster.

Chris was cool enough to spare time from his schedule and field some questions, via email, about his well-seasoned chops as a brewer. He also reveals an appreciation for lager beers and fondness for a dessert of stout and chocolate cake.

Here's the interview:

Q: How long have you been a professional brewer, and what route did you take to that career path?

A: I've been getting paid to brew since July of 1997. I had homebrewed for about two years before becoming the assistant brewer at the original Dock Street in Philadelphia. The next brewery I worked for, Harpoon in Boston, sent me to Siebel’s concise course in brewing in 2000. Two years ago, Iron Hill split the cost of the American Brewers Guild’s six-month correspondence course with me. I think it’s important to work in a brewery before spending the time and money on school. You need to make sure it’s for you first and get a realistic picture of the work. Also, I think the science and theory stick better if you can visualize the physical aspects in your head while sitting in a classroom, so that’s how I did it.

As far as my skill set goes, I’d say my job is a lot like that of a chef. Not as far as food knowledge and multitasking skills go, but in terms of balancing social and hands-on skills in the same job. I love crafting a tangible product, something you can point at and say, “I made that.” I also love the social aspect of the job. I like teaching people about beer, converting wine drinkers and watery beer drinkers to craft beer, getting people excited about beer. Not too many jobs, including most brewing jobs, incorporate both.

Q: If you weren’t brewing beer, what would you be doing?
A: I’m an avid cyclist. I ride my bike to work when I can. From home to Iron Hill West Chester is 45 miles where I worked as head brewer until now. Maple Shade will be 23 miles from home, a shorter commute! I founded the West Chester Cycling Club, and I’m a member of it and the Bike Club of Philadelphia. So if I had to pick another career, I’d love to guide bicycle tours. Maybe even bike tours with a gastronomic focus.

Q: What are your favorite style(s) to brew and what is it about them you like?
A: In competitions, I’ve been most successful with dry, yeast-driven Belgians, and I really enjoy drinking those beers. But I think the beers I take the most pride in are clean and balanced lagers. They’re often overlooked in a world that’s enamored with “extreme” beers. But they require a lot more skill to get them to taste right than beers loaded with hops, dark malts or booze.

Q: Similar question, favorite style(s) to drink and what is it you enjoy about them?
A: That’s a bit like asking a conductor what his favorite song is. It really depends. It depends on what the weather is like, or what I’m eating or whether I’m drinking just one or several, etc. But, if you ask me right now, this minute, I’m craving either a crisp German pils or a balanced pale ale.

Q: What's your favorite beer and food pairing?
A: Somehow that’s easier for me ... The classic saison and goat cheese is one. But chocolate cake and Russian stout probably wins it for me. I can’t think of a better way to finish a great meal.

Q: How important is it to interact with patrons, and how do you see yourself getting reaction from the folks who come in for a beer?
A: Like I mentioned earlier, mingling and getting to know our customers is a big part of my job. It's something the owners at Iron Hill have always been committed to when it comes to their product. Iron Hill wouldn’t hire a brewer that wasn’t a people person, even if they made the best beer in the world. Customer reaction is always very important as well. I’ve been asked what sort of seasonals I’ll be brewing in Maple Shade, and my answer has been that a lot of it will depend on what our guests want me to brew.

Q: Iron Hill will be the first new brewery in New Jersey in quite some time, and there’s a fair amount of anticipation on the part of beer enthusiasts. Are you folks feeling that as well?
A: Absolutely. I talk to lots of people from New Jersey at beer bars and festivals who have all expressed excitement, and I’ve also been following BeerAdvocate and people are definitely looking forward to our opening.

Q: What do you think beer drinkers in New Jersey will be saying about Iron Hill in the Garden State.
A: I think they’ll be really glad they don’t have to cross a bridge to drink a variety of micros. I live in Philly and a lot of people I meet in some of the city’s best beer bars are from New Jersey who come into town just to drink beer. New Jersey has come a long way as far as beer goes, but it still needs a few more places that focus on craft beer to be on the level with Philadelphia and its suburbs. We’re hoping to get that ball rolling.