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sugar is needed to ferment beer, just like wine yeast consumes the fermentable sugars in the liquid and converts them into two substances, alcohol and CO2. The alcohol stays in the liquid (thanks Pilgrims) and the CO2 leaves the beer, to be added later on in the brewing process. The troublesome terror of the "new world" made growing barley difficult and paired with the heavy taxation from our friends in England the barley malt used to brew was difficult to come by and expensive. In some brews of the colonial times pumpkin provided 100% of the sugars used in the mash. Thusly the sugar in pumpkins helped to sweeten the early colonial beer, adding body and alcohol to the seasonal offerings. This age-old style of beer is brewed with a variety of ingredients, many of which can be found in grandma's thanksgiving pies. Food pairing these beers can be the easiest of all, "I'd say mixing mine with pumpkin cookies, I'd drink to that," proclaims Tom Powers. These pumpkin beers are sure to be sold out by the giving holiday, so I suggest squirreling a few away in a cool basement only to emerge at the dinner feast. Ingredients such as brown sugar, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, vanilla beans, pumpkin puree, and allspice are used to create these unique brews. When used in moderation and with the proper blending technique, these spices make the perfect fall seasonal and are sure to impress your family. Here are a few commercial examples of craft beer that falls into the famed "pumpkin ale category": indian summer ~2013 105