Pumpkin beer is America’s oldest brewing prank, first stirred into kettles in the 18th century when malt was scarce and gourds were cheap, plentiful, and begging to be mashed into fermenters. Colonists, strapped for grain, brewed with pumpkin flesh and whatever spices lingered in the cupboard, creating ales that were more survival than celebration. Flash forward a couple hundred years, and pumpkin beer returned not from necessity but from nostalgia — a spiced, glowing goblet of autumn marketing genius, equal parts pie, pint, and ritual. By the 1990s, breweries had gone full harvest delirium, cramming gourds, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove into every tank like the season itself depended on it.
Let’s ditch the beer. Pumpkin cider wasn’t born out of spice-obsessed marketing—it was innovation borne of necessity. Early American cidermakers, often short on apples or hops, sometimes added pumpkins (grown willy-nilly across homesteads) to stretch their fermentable base. Unlike beer, where pumpkin stood in for malt, pumpkin cider was just “keeping the cider going,” resourceful, autumnal, and marginally tolerated, not fawned over in latte culture. Centuries later, that humble experiment blossomed into the pumpkin-spice madness we binge every fall—but with the grace and brightness of cider as its backbone.
Our Monday Pumpkin Cider Flight brings that spirit—rustic, orchard-rooted mischief—back to the glass: cider that tastes like honest fruit bumped up with spice, not syrup, glowing with the kind of autumnal swagger only a little pumpkin persuasion can deliver.
Peaks & Pints Monday Pumpkin Cider Flight
Portland Cider Pumpkin Spice
6.0% ABV | Semi-Dry Spiced Cider | Portland, OR
Portland Cider’s Pumpkin Spice doesn’t bother with pumpkin patches or candle-shop clichés — instead it lets Pacific Northwest apples carry the tune while cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger provide the harmony. The result is copper-bright and cozy, more spice symphony than sugar bomb, with a finish that feels like biting into a crisp apple under a canopy of autumn leaves. Semi-dry, balanced, and award-winning, it drinks like a bonfire night in a glass — orchard snap on the front, pie-spice warmth on the back, and not a single pumpkin latte in sight.
2 Towns Ciderhouse Hollow Jack
6.4% ABV | Pumpkin-Chai Spiced Cider | Corvallis, OR
Hollow Jack is autumn’s trickster in a glass — a pumpkin-chai fever dream conjured by the mischief-makers at 2 Towns. Fresh-pressed Northwest apples form the backbone, then in march caramelized pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and a drizzle of local honey, all wrapped in a cloak of chai spice. It smells like a haunted pie cooling on a witch’s windowsill and tastes like the orchard and pumpkin patch staged an after-dark séance. It’s fall’s trickster spirit bottled — cozy, cackling, and impossible to ignore.
Seattle Cider Pumpkin Spice
6.9% ABV | Semi-Sweet Spiced Cider with Pumpkin & Autumn Spices | Seattle, WA
Pumpkin Spice is Seattle Cider’s copper-hued ode to fall, steeped with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and clove, with just enough pumpkin to ground it in the season’s earth. Built on fresh-pressed apples, it smells like an orchard bakery at golden hour, all pie crust heat and sugared air. On the palate, it’s semi-sweet, warm without being sticky, balancing orchard brightness against spice-rack swagger until it drinks like a glass of October itself. Cozy, approachable, and quietly decadent, this is fall’s favorite cliché reborn with backbone — pie, cider, and bonfire all tangled together.
One Tree Pumpkin
6.9% ABV | Seasonal Pumpkin Cider | Spokane Valley, WA
One Tree’s Pumpkin is fall distilled into a sly, golden pour — a cider that doesn’t come screaming with spice but instead leans in with a semi-sweet murmur of orchard apple, soft pumpkin flesh, and just enough seasonal warmth to keep things honest. It smells like a hayride drifting past a bakery, all crisp fruit and caramel crust, and tastes like the pumpkin patch decided to swap its lattes for cider glasses. Balanced, easy, and comforting without tipping into syrup or candle-shop cliché, this is autumn in a bottle — approachable, glowing, and slyly persuasive that maybe pumpkin belongs in more than pie.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
