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Pumpkins Going Under the Knife for Beer

While many people are heading to the pumpkin patch to find a perfect pumpkin to carve, one resort in the Poconos is putting their pumpkins under the knife to ma...

While many people are heading to the pumpkin patch to find a perfect pumpkin to carve, one resort in the Poconos is putting their pumpkins under the knife to make a good glass of beer.

When you're about to carve pumpkins, you'll need a pretty sharp knife.

Workers at Shawnee Craft Brewing Company near Delaware Water Gap know the drill.

They're getting ready to carve pumpkins.

Not to make funky-looking Jack-O-Lanterns, instead, beer.

"Unlike a lot of breweries, we make our Pumpkin Saison, which is a Belgium-Style Farmhouse Ale, out of whole pumpkins," said Jason Startari, the general manager of Shawnee Craft Brewing Company.

It's a "whole" lot of work!

First, the crew has to wait until the pumpkins are ready to be picked, which is in late September.

Then it's go time.

"We do about 250 pounds per batch. And we'll do four or five batches this year," said Startari.

All the pumpkins at Shawnee Craft Brewing Company are cut by hand by a staff of three people.  A total of a thousand pounds of pumpkin will be going under the knife.  That's the most pumpkin ever to make the cut.

"There's a big demand for the Pumpkin Saison. People love the Pumpkin Saison so we're trying to please our customers by making as much as we possible can," said Startari.

But Shawnee Craft Brewing Company, with its buckets of pumpkin, its steel drums fermenting the brew, can only make so much.

Jason says the beer taps usually run dry within a month.

"Mid-November I would expect we'll start running low on Pumpkin Saison," said Startari.

Pumpkin Saison is sold at Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort, along with other restaurants in Scranton, the Poconos and the Lehigh Valley.

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