Pumpkin Ale at Magnolia

Here is my short thingy in today's SF Chronicle:

The Great Pumpkin Batch

Jealous of kids who get to dress up and gorge themselves on candy on Halloween? Forget about it over a treat they're not allowed.

At Magnolia Pub & Brewery in San Francisco, David McLean and his team have brewed up their seasonal Barking Pumpkin Ale to be tapped today and served until it runs out. They create the ale by mixing baked pumpkin seeds and slices of baked organic sugar pie pumpkins from Riverdog Farm in Guinda, into a barley mash. In the boiling process, they add spices reminiscent of pumpkin pie -- cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and allspice -- to the wort before fermentation. The ale is flavored with minimal hops to let the pumpkin shine through, and the chosen yeast lends a slight fruity aspect to the finished beer.

To best enjoy its nuances try the cask-conditioned version as opposed to the regular draft. The cask-conditioned ale is only available at Magnolia, but the draft is also on tap at McLean's new outpost the Alembic just up the street.

Magnolia Pub & Brewery, 1398 Haight St., (415) 864-7468. $4.50 for 20-ounce pint. The Alembic, 1725 Haight St., San Francisco, (415) 666-0822, $5 for 20-ounce pint.