Everything goes better with alcohol

Ask anyone to provide a list of Thanksgiving foods, and they’ll probably be able to answer you without much thinking. Turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, dressing, gravy, cranberry sauce, biscuits, pumpkin pie and a whole a slew of other dishes sit steaming in the kitchen on the fourth Thursday of November, while the Detroit Lions lose in the background and Aunt Bertha smooches all of her adorable nephews.

While it isn’t difficult to build the food portion of a Thanksgiving menu, beverages are tougher to pin down.

There’s no essential “Thanksgiving drink.” It’s too late for iced tea and too early for eggnog. There is no uniformity, and in my family, it’s not unlikely for everyone at the table to be drinking something different.

Fortunately, our country’s founders came up with a solution for such a Thanksgiving dilemma. During colonial times, barley was scarce, so pumpkins grown by Native Americans were used as a substitute in brewing. Several modern microbreweries have rekindled this tradition and sell seasonal pumpkin ales, made in the old tradition and with spices like cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg to flavor the brews.

Gourmet food stores are the place to look for pumpkin ales, as liquor stores probably aren’t quite classy enough to carry them. Renowned varieties include Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale, Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale and Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale.

Thanksgiving traditions are worn out; it’s time they were revitalized with a drink.