Get into the Halloween Spirit(s)
Candymakers can’t have all the fun this spooky season.
On the adult trick-or-treat refreshment front, brewers, cider makers and distillers have jumped into spooky season with as much vigor, creating ghoulishly green beers, terrifying can art and—gulp—haunted vodka.
With so many beverage options this Halloween, what you drink could draw as much attention as what you wear.
Fear the green
Far From The Tree’s Ectoplasm cider
Far From The Tree Cider brews in the Halloween capital of the country. And it takes the holiday deadly seriously.
With a reputation in Salem for the avant-garde, Far From The Tree looks forward every Halloween to making scarier and stranger ciders, much to the delight of its customers.
“We’re pretty chill and crazy as it is, but Halloween we just don’t care,” co-founder Al Snape told the podcast “Brew Roots” in an interview last year.
In 2017, Far From The Tree created the pinnacle of All Hallow’s Eve strangeness in “Ectoplasm,” a cider that pours somewhere between candy and nuclear green. One of Far From The Tree’s most popular ciders, Ectoplasm derives its signature color from a devilish combination of green bell pepper, jalapeño and kiwi.
The cider maker grinds and purees the peppers—thousands of them—which give Ectoplasm its heat and lingering burn. The spice melds into the fruit for a pleasantly sweet finish.
Four Quarters Brewing’s This Place is Haunted beer
Go from green cider to green beer with “This Place is Haunted” from Vermont’s Four Quarters Brewing.
“Halloween is one of our favorite times of year,” says Four Quarters brewer Brian Eckert. “It lends itself to tons of fun and creative ideas.”
The IPA, named after a band Eckert’s college friend played in, features “an unholy amount” of Mosaic and Ella hops for notes of melon and citrus. The color comes by way of a tiny amount of blue food coloring—about 1 milliliter per gallon of beer.
Tree House Brewing’s Extra Spooky IPA
Tree House offers drinks that go bump in the night
A brewer, distiller and coffee roaster all in on, Tree House Brewing Co., in Charlton, Deerfield, Tewksbury and Cape Cod, could supply beverages for your whole Halloween menu.
For beer, look to “Ghost Emoji” and “Extra Spooky,” two hazy IPAs with varying amounts of Mosaic, Nelson, and Citra hops. Spookier still, shut the lights off and drink from the cans: The ghost emojis stamped on them glow in the dark.
Tree House’s distillery got into the Halloween spirit, too, with a canned vodka cocktail named after that Sleepy Hollow educator terrorized by the Headless Horseman.
“Ichabod Pumpkin Buck” takes the classic cocktail into autumn with doses of pumpkin and ginger, and it travels better than a punch bowl.
Harridan Vodka’s Paranormal Reserve
A haunting in your glass
Care to try a ghostly Espresso Martini?
New York distiller Harridan Vodka has released 350 bottles of “The Paranormal Reserve,” a vodka rested in two purportedly haunted U.S. hotels.
Both hotels—the Crescent Hotel in Arkansas and the Anderson Hotel in Kentucky—have grisly histories and various reported ghost sightings over the years, Harridan says, so whether you consider it pure gimmick, schtick or somewhere in between, The Paranormal Reserve is a frightening addition to your liquor collection.
Each burnished wooden box containing the vodka comes with a room key from the hotel where it stayed, as well as black gloves to handle the spirit safely.
Don’t believe in ghosts? The $150 price tag is equally scary.
This story appeared as an Online Exclusive in October 2023.
