Technically not “beer” but still incorporating pumpkin, 2 Towns Ciderhouse crafts a pumpkin cider each year with its Hollow Jack’d. (This is the “Pumpkin Cider Project” post in the series.) 2 Towns recently sent me two bottles of this year’s version which is always a fun one to drink.

2 Towns was launched in 2010 in the college town of Corvallis (home of Oregon State University). The name comes from the two “towns” the founders are from—Corvallis and Eugene. Over the past nine years 2 Towns has grown to become the largest cider producer in the state, and in fact as of August the cidery is ranked #8 (out of 269) on the OLCC’s monthly report of malt beverages sold (which counts beer and cider)—well ahead of most of the state’s breweries.

The cider maker offers a diverse lineup of traditional and fruited and spiced ciders, including a number of barrel aged specialties. Hollow Jack’d is a seasonal that’s been released the last few years, at least since 2016 when I first reviewed it (when it was named “Hollow Jack”).

Here’s a bit from the press release for the cider when it was released this year:

“We are proud to be using locally grown pumpkins, sourced 10 miles from our Tap Room in Hollow Jack’D,” quoted Dave Takush, head cider maker. “After caramelizing the pumpkin juice, the rich character really shines through and blends well with the apples and spices.”

Extra mischievous, Hollow Jack’D takes our fall classic to a whole new level with its 8.4% ABV and boo-tastic ingredients. Fresh-pressed apples, caramelized pumpkins, cloves, nutmeg and sweet potatoes give our cider a sweet baked spiced character. This cider is for sure the go-to drink this Halloween season and pairs exceptionally well some good ol’ pumpkin patch picking.

Pumpkin juice and sweet potatoes? I reached out to Content Marketing Manager Madison Shirley for more info:

How were both ingredients prepared and incorporated into the process, and how much of each was used in what sized batch?

Before being mixed in with the fresh-pressed apple juice, the fresh pumpkin juice was cooked in a large vat for several hours resulting in a delicious caramelization of the juice itself. From there, the caramelized pumpkin juice is added in with the apple juice and fresh sweet potato puree (as you can imagine it is harder to get juice from a sweet potato) before going into the tank. While our specific recipe break down is proprietary, I can tell you that there is roughly 55% apples, 30% pumpkin, 15% sweet potato. We ended up having two separate batches of Hollow Jack’D that both went into 6000 gallon tanks.

Can you share how the cloves and nutmeg were added (e.g. during initial fermentation, in conditioning, etc.)?

The cloves and nutmeg were added after fermentation using hop socks.

Do you find a particular variety or combination of varieties of apples work better with pumpkin than others? Conversely, do you find particular pumpkin varieties work better with cider?

We’ve found that a blend of dessert apples tend to marry best with the pumpkin flavor, or at least helps maintain that pumpkin pie flavor people are looking for in their pumpkin ciders. We don’t specifically have one recommendation for pumpkin varieties, but we always tend to lean towards pumpkins specifically bred for pies (again, to help get that pumpkin pie flavor people are craving). This year we went with the Golden Delicious pumpkin variety (not to be confused with the apple!), specifically because it was extremely locally sourced and makes some damn fine pies (and cider).

As for juicing pumpkins, that’s a new one to me; 2 Towns was able to use its regular juice processor on the locally-sourced pumpkins.

Hollow Jack’d is 8.4% ABV and packaged in 500ml bottles.

Appearance: Gold color, unfiltered appearance (moreso as the bottle emptied), a bit of carbonation in the glass. Color has a tinge of orange to it (though that could also be suggestive from the pumpkin).

Smell: Delicate spices, sweet apple juice, and a touch of caramelization—maybe yam-like. Bit of a spiced or mulled cider character to my nose.

Taste: Sweet and tart apple cider with notes of dark brown sugar, and gentle spicing that reinforces the mulled cider impression from the aroma. Some caramelly notes if I look for them with a hint of squash/sweet potato/vegetal, but only just.

Mouthfeel: Sweet cider, semi-petillant, with a nice rich spiced cider finish.

Overall: It’s quite nice, sweet and reminding me of mulled cider. I’m not finding the pumpkin easily, have to hunt for it a bit and I do get the notes of caramelization; it’s there but subtle. A nice fall cider going into the holiday season.