Elysian Brewing- Pumpkin Press Release 2014 UPDATE

It’s the Great Pumpkin’s 10th Anniversary, Charlie Brown!

It may be barely mid-summer, but pumpkin season isn’t far off. Blame some of the big national producers if you need a scapegoat–or the fact that people just plain want it–but the delicious reality is that Elysian Brewing Company’s 2014 lineup of pumpkin beers will be hitting shelves beginning with its flagship pumpkin brew Night Owl this August 1. Brewed with over seven pounds of Oregon pumpkin per barrel and spiced with the classic pie blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and allspice, Night Owl will be available in six-packs, 22-ounce bottles and on draft in all of Elysian’s markets throughout the Northwest and beyond.

Never a crew to settle for one of pretty much anything, Elysian will be issuing three other beers to round out its Pumpkin Patch selection in 22-ounce bottles and on draft. Two Great American Beer Festival  silver medal winners, The Great Pumpkin Imperial Pumpkin Ale (2007) and Dark o’ the Moon Pumpkin Stout (2010) are back by demand, and this year they’re joined by Punkuccino, a spiced coffee pumpkin ale, one of last year’s popular favorites at Elysian’s Great Pumpkin Beer Festival. Look for them in single bottles around September 1.

The first Great Pumpkin Beer Festival thrown by Elysian Brewing Company back in 2005 began as a lark, a way to celebrate the silliness that is pumpkin beer. A mistake brewing one of the Elysian pumpkin beers resulted in the idea that with just a couple more, and some invitations tendered to local breweries, a hundred or so pumpkins for carving, a pumpkin full of beer and some pumpkin-themed food from the restaurant on Capitol Hill, something like a festival could happen. The result was a line out the door for ten hours, and the founding of a tradition. Each year saw the

festival–the crowds, the lineups and the sheer number of beers–further

outgrow the Capitol Hill premises and move on to the Airport Way production facility, and last year’s joyful mob scene begged the question: What’s Next?

This year GPBF will be held at Seattle Center, right in the middle of it all. More than eighty pumpkin beers are expected to be available, including twenty or so from the mad brewers of Elysian and their collaborators. The event will be produced in part with local indie radio stalwart KEXP, themselves celebrating moving into more spacious new studios in Seattle Center. DJs Riz Rollins and Stevie Zoom will be spinning at the fest on successive days. Giant pumpkins galore will also be on hand, scooped, scorched, sealed, conditioned and tapped, provided through the joint efforts of Elysian and Krainick Dairy Farms in Enumclaw. Once again the festival will be 21 and over. Look for some very special brews from some breweries whose beer you may never have had. 

Tickets Available AUG 1st

elysianbrewing.com/great-pumpkin-beer-fest/

NIGHT OWL PUMPKIN ALE Our Original Pumpkin Ale!

Night Owl is brewed with over 7 lbs. of pumpkin per barrel and includes seven different malt varieties, green and roasted pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin in the mash, boil and fermenter. Bittered with Magnum hops and spiced in conditioning with nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, ginger and allspice. 5.9% ABV

AVAILABLE :: AUG-OCT

Draft, 22oz bottles and 12oz – Six Packs

THE GREAT PUMPKIN An Imperial Pumpkin Ale!

The Great Pumpkin was the silver medalist at the 2007 Great American Beer Festival in the Fruit and Vegetable category and was also the world’s first Imperial pumpkin ale. Brewed with Pale, Munich, Cara-Hell, Cara-Vienne, Cara-Munich and Crisp 45° L Crystal malts. Roasted pumpkin seeds in the mash, and extra pumpkin added in the mash, kettle and fermenter. Spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice. 8% ABV 

AVAILABLE :: SEPT-OCT

Draft & 22oz Bottles

DARK O’ THE MOON PUMPKIN STOUT Spookily Smooth & Chocolatey

A perennial favorite and 2010 Silver medalist in the Great American Beer Festival Field Beer category, Dark o’ the Moon is brewed with Great Western pale, Crisp 77° Crystal, Munich, Cara-Vienne, roasted, chocolate and Special B malts with roasted pumpkin seeds in the mash.  Pumpkin in the mash, kettle and fermenter. Bittered with Magnum and finished with Saaz and crushed cinnamon. 6.5% ABV, 20 IBUs

AVAILABLE :: SEPT-OCT

Draft & 22oz Bottles

PUNKUCCINO Coffee Pumpkin Ale

A pumpkin ale with the attitude of a world-weary barista, Punkuccino packs a short shot of Stumptown coffee toddy in your pint with just a shake of cinnamon and nutmeg.  Pale, brown, biscuit, C-77 crystal, chocolate and kiln-coffee malts provide the body, German Northern Brewer lends a touch of bitterness, and lactose sweetens just a touch. Three pumpkin additions, in the mash, kettle and fermenter. 5% ABV

AVAILABLE :: SEPT-OCT

Draft & 22oz Bottles

UPDATE 22 July 2014:

Sometimes things charge ahead a little faster than practicality allows. Elysian’s plan to move the Great Pumpkin Beer Festival (The Granddaddy of Them All) to Seattle Center this year turned out to be one of those things. After encountering a few too many logistical and regulatory hurdles to easily overcome, the folks at Elysian have decided to give it another year at their production brewery location at 5510 Airport Way in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood. The festival will take place the same weekend–October 3 & 4, and will feature over 80 different pumpkin beers, as well as pumpkins several hundred to over a thousand pounds filled with beer.

Elysian believes that GPBF has taken on a life of its own to become not just an Elysian event, but a Seattle festival anticipated and enjoyed by people from all over the country. It’s also an opportunity to honor dozens of local breweries who’ve scratched their heads and come up with a massive array of interesting styles and interpretations of pumpkin beer, and to tie in with the farmers who grow the big pumpkins Elysian’s brewers hollow out, scorch, fill and wax shut for the ceremonial tapping during the festival. Someday all that may take place in the shadow of the Space Needle, but for this year it’ll be in Georgetown.

Any good beer festival has more than just beer to celebrate, and GPBF will be no exception. There will be games, costumes, the passing of the tiaras from 2013’s Pumpkin King and Queen to this year’s gourd-royalty, KEXP DJs Riz Rollins and Stevie Zoom, Chaotic Noise Marching band, and of course pumpkin carving. Another someday in the future will allow kids into the festivities, but for now the event is 21 and over. It’s also a chance to sneak a peek at the place where Elysian works its brewing magic, and to drift on over to some of the great and quirky businesses that have sprung up in Georgetown.

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