THE NEXT DRAFT: Pumpkin beers creep back into the market

SPENCER — The monks of St. Joseph's Abbey follow a Trappist tradition that dates back to the 17th century.

They operate their brewery by the strict standards of the International Trappist Association and produce timeless styles of beer that float above the whims of craft's fleeting market.

But, being in New England, their abbey cloister could not avoid one of the most polarizing trends in beer: the summer release of pumpkin beers, otherwise known as the pumpkin creep.

So, Spencer Brewery has already made and shipped its first pumpkin beer. In fact, they had a lot fun brewing it, as evidenced by the name they picked: "The Monkster Mash."

"We said, 'Let's do a pumpkin beer,' which is a little out of character for us," said the Rev. Isaac Keeley, the brewery's director. "Then as we were talking about it, we got enthused: 'Let's not put it in a bottle, let's put it in a 16-ounce can.' And when, we worked on the label, we got out of our typical branding. It became a playful thing to do."

Given Monkster Mash's Halloween theme — it carries an orange label with the face of a ghoulish looking jack-o'-lantern — Father Keeley does regret that the ale was not released later, perhaps closer to the holiday. The brewery, though, felt the pressure of the market.

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"I would love to have it be on the holiday schedule, so to speak, because of the whole Halloween motif; as a normal human being that's what I would want," he said. "It isn't that way, though. And we're such a little brewery, that we can't drive those schedules. When this is gone, everybody is going to start talking about Christmas beers. The day all of the Halloween stuff goes out the door, the Christmas stuff goes in the next day. Take this with a grain of salt because I live in a monastery, but this big retail cycle, it has a life of its own."

Distributors don't want to take all the blame for the "pumpkin creep," as they say they are meeting a schedule dictated by their breweries, while reacting to the demands of their customers. It should be noted, too, that there are many breweries in Massachusetts who choose to hold off releasing their pumpkin and other fall beers until October.

Jon Salois, vice president of sales at Atlas Distributing Inc., cringes when he sees Halloween candy at stores in August, so he understands those who despise the summer release of pumpkin beers.

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Atlas is Spencer Brewery's local distributor. It also distributes Shipyard Brewing Co.'s Pumpkinhead, which of all the pumpkin beers released in August seems to garner the most love and derision for its early arrival. First released in 1997, Pumpkinhead has become the primary villain in the minds of those who ridicule the pumpkin creep.

But for as much criticism as the early release of pumpkin beers receives, the beers themselves do sell, Salois said, especially in New England. "There are so many people who love fall," he said. "I think people do cringe initially, but everyone seems to eventually gravitate not only to pumpkin beers, but the Oktoberfests, the Märzens and even the ciders."

About four years ago, he said, breweries flooded the market with pumpkin beers, and for Atlas, sales were strong. But in 2016, Atlas saw the market for pumpkin ales decline slightly and begin to level out.

Salois believes breweries were overly enthusiastic about their pumpkin beer based on the success they had in 2014 and 2015. There were so many offerings, and stores had too much inventory. In 2016 and 2017, for instance, Atlas stocked around 40 different pumpkin beers from 14 different breweries.

Even Shipyard acknowledged the slumping sales of pumpkin beer. When it announced the August 2017 release of Pumpkinhead, the Maine brewery doubled down on its flagship pumpkin, pledging efforts to boost its sales, including the release of a cinnamon sugar mix for glass rims.

Over the last two years, Salois said, pumpkin beers have started to rebound, with the market becoming somewhat less saturated. Last year, Atlas had only about 33 different pumpkin beers, he said.

Nationally, the market for pumpkin beers has mirrored what Atlas saw regionally.

"2016 saw oversupply and dropping sales, leading to tight orders in 2017," Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers Association told me in an email. "By 2018 it seemed like distributors and brewers were doing a better job of figuring out which pumpkin beers should be in the market and the size of orders."

Atlas is anticipating better pumpkin beer sales this year than last, Salois said. August has not even ended, and already the distributor has sold a third of what it did in 2018.

"I'm expecting this to be a really positive year for us in terms of the fall seasonals," he said. "The summer has been great, and that success seems to be moving right into the fall."

As for Monkster Mash, Salois said early sales of the Trappist pumpkin ale have been strong.

Spencer Brewery brewed about 55 barrels of Monkster Mash, and Keeley is hopeful all of it will be sold off well before Halloween. The ale, which comes in at 5.2% alcohol by volume, has a subtle pumpkin flavor and touch of spice.

Of course, because the brewery wanted to release Monkster Mash by the first week of August, it had to use pumpkin puree.

In Massachusetts, fresh, local pumpkins won’t be ready until at least mid-September.