This weekend, October 16 and 17, Elysian Brewing holds its annual pumpkin beer festival. This is what happens: Over 40 different pumpkin beers are poured, there is pumpkin carving, and—on 4pm on both days—Elysian taps a massive pumpkin filled with the brewery’s own fragrant, spicy Great Pumpkin Ale.

There are also pumpkin food specials on the menu.

If you’ve never had pumpkin ales, go give them a try. These beers are American originals, invented here just as surely as were Twinkies and the Tea Party. They are often spiced with pumpkin-pie spices like allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger—the flavors of fall, in other words. They tend towards malty but sweetness varies as does pumpkiny-ness.

The festival takes place at Elysian Brewing on Capitol Hill.