Munching in the Mitten: September 2012

beer week [beer week]
noun

a twelve-blogger effort to ring in Oktoberfest stateside
six days of brewery spotlights and tasty beer-centric recipes

It's the fourth day of fall. I've wasted no time embracing apples, apple cider, squash, pumpkin, pumpkin spice, decorative corn stalks, etc. This year I'm adding pumpkin beer to the list. I grabbed a bottle Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale a few weeks ago and was intrigued to try more. I was happy to see that my hometown brewery, Arcadia Ales, just released their pumpkin beer for the season - Jaw-Jacker. Not too pale, not too dark, not too hoppy, just right.

Arcadia has been brewing in downtown Battle Creek since 1996. Given that I was under-age for most of their 16 years, my sentiments with Arcadia lie in a few random, non-beer things (beer is totally on the list now). First, their wood-fired pizzas. Concurrent with my developing foodie-ness over the years my pizza allegiances at Arcadia have gone from the Peanut Butter and Jelly pizza, to Barbeque Chicken, to my current favorite, the Green Goddess Pizza. Their barbeque is also worth the trip. Second, as an eternal optimist for the future of downtown Battle Creek I love that Arcadia has stayed put in the area for so many years. They were one of few attractions to that part of town for many years, and now there is lots of exciting growth happening all around them. And they are expanding too!

Back to beer. . .I'm happy to count Arcadia's Angler Ale, IPA, and now Jaw-Jacker among some of my favorite Michigan beers these days.

In looking for ale friendly recipes, beer bread popped on my radar. Of course with pumpkin on the brain, I quickly shifted gears to begin searching for pumpkin beer bread. Given the level of pumpk-session this time of year, I need not look too far. I made two versions of this pumpkin beer bread, using first about a 3:1 ratio of whole wheat flour to all purpose flour and then, using solely whole wheat flour. The 100% whole wheat loaf was a bit denser but just as tasty.

Pumpkin Beer Bread

from Slate

1¼ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch ground nutmeg
Pinch ground allspice
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup pumpkin purée
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin ale

Preheat oven to 350º and grease a 9-inch loaf pan.
Combine all dry ingredients, flour - allspice.
Melt the butter over low heat. Remove from heat and stir in pumpkin puree and brown sugar, first. Then, add in eggs and ale.
Slowly add the wet mixture to the dry, until just combined.
Bake for about an hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the loaf.