I was reading Rick's post yesterday about pork chops as an unusual Wyoming Thanksgiving tradition, and once I was done reliving the Frog Eye Salad of Thanksgivings past, I started thinking about my family's Thanksgiving traditions. We do a mostly traditional Thanksgiving, complete with turkey and pumpkin pie, but there's one tradition that I think is unique to us: pumpkin beer pancakes.

While on a camping trip with their friends a few years back, my mom and stepdad found that they had no water to put in their instant pancake mix. On a whim, they put beer in the mix, and it worked! The following fall, we picked up some pumpkin beer to try, and although we didn't like drinking it, we found that it made some excellently fluffy pancakes Thanksgiving morning.

But this use of pumpkin beer got me thinking, what else can you do with pumpkin beer? Fret not, I brainstormed a few ideas here!

 

  • 1

    Drink It

    I know it's the most obvious option. I also know that there are a group of people that love all things pumpkin and go all out once August rolls around. Besides, if you're paying upwards of $10 for a six-pack, you might as well enjoy the contents, right?

  • 2

    Pour It Down the Drain

    One of my friends likes to make the joke that "the only good use for pumpkin beer is to pour it down the drain". I personally wouldn't recommend this (see previous point about the cost), but to each their own. Maybe there's some sort of satisfaction that people gain from dumping it out, I guess?

  • 3

    Festive Beer Pong

    I can't take credit for this idea, this one was all Debbie. But, for those of age, pumpkin beer offers a fun autmnal spin on the traditional drinking game. If you attempt this game, play responsibly.

  • 4

    Cleaning Your Jewelry

    Did you try drinking that beer but find that you couldn't get past the taste? And are you unwilling to swallow the money you spent by pouring it down the drain? You can use the remaining beer to clean your jewelry!

  • 5

    Cooking

    As I mentioned previously, my family likes to add pumpkin beer to pancake mix for pumpkin beer pancakes on Thanksgiving morning, but there are also recipes for pumpkin beer bread, pumpkin beer soft pretzels, and pumpkin beer cupcakes that can be found just about anywhere on the internet.

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