Rivertown’s Pumpkin Returns… And YES, It’s As Close As You Can Make It.
Written By: The Gnarly Gnome
Photography By: The Gnarly Gnome
9/6/25
I wish that I could remember the first time I tried Rivertown’s Pumpkin Ale… I certainly remember drinking it more than my fair share of times over the years, but the first? It’s been lost to the foggy memory of time. It’s pretty safe to say that for many drinkers who started exploring craft beer during a specific era of Cincinnati’s beer scene, that beer played a role in their journey.
When I got a text from Rivertown’s Jason Roeper a while back, telling me that he was getting ready to brew up a batch of Rivertown’s Pumpkin… my ears perked up. Rivertown’s Pumpkin? THE beer?
Let’s talk about this.
Ok Youngin’ Let’s Talk Rivertown
I’m going to pretend that there are young craft beer drinkers, just getting into drinking better beer, who might not know what I’m talking about. I’m going to pretend that a trip to the Lockland taproom wasn’t part of everyone’s regular schedule of craft beer stops (you know… there were only a few taprooms that we could visit, so we went to them all).
Rivertown was one of the first – the originals. Opening for business in 2009, they were the first local brewery since Hudepohl-Schoenling that put their six packs on Kroger shelves alongside “The big guys”, and opened their taproom in 2012… one of the first in town.
They were operating out of a small warehouse taproom in an industrial park, and they just kept growing. They would take over spaces next door to them as they became available… it was a beautiful time for drinkers – often with a pumpkin beer in hand if it was the right season.
You can find the story elsewhere, here on the blog – but eventually the brewery expanded to Monroe, and a few short years later would close the doors to their business – taking with them the recipes, the memories, and the beers that so many of us fell in love with.
There are, of course, people around town with beers that are inspired by Rivertown. Heck… down in Newport, Kentucky, one of Rivertown’s founders, Randy, is operating Wooden Cask Brewing Company with plenty of beers that are strong nods to the early beers of Rivertown.
This, though? This is different.
Still Fermenting.
I asked Jason recently, when we eventually got together, if he was done with beer. His eyes were looking away as he searched the tap handles that lined the ceiling, hoping for a long-lost pumpkin handle, when he finally answered me. “I’m done with beer… but I’m still fermenting” – the well-thought-out answer might have just been a nod to his current line of work, in a different realm of fermentation (the food industry). Still, it might have also been a glimpse into one of his hobbies: hanging out with the folks at Gabby’s Cafe in Wyoming, and their in-house brewery, Bocce Brewing.
He’s been helping them make some much-needed improvements to their brewhouse (they just got a glycol system up and running, and are in the process of expanding into a bigger brewhouse to keep up with the demand of their small batch beers).
It was during this hanging out and helping that the discussion got started about brewing up a batch of beer. Gabby’s is located right down the street where the Rivertown Pumpkin Ale was born… so the pieces came together very naturally: same water, same ingredients, same yeast… this is as close as you can get to the same beer being reborn, and I’m all for it.
I think for a lot of us beer drinkers, this is a fun chance to see how much nostalgia is still fermenting away inside of us, too.
This Is Supposed To Be Fun
At the end of the day, this is beer. This is all supposed to be fun, remember? With the current state of the market, and with the quickness with which media loves to point out the obvious declines that we’re looking at, it’s easy to forget.
I have hope that things like this can reignite the passion that too many folks have lost. Owners, brewers, and drinkers alike are all too quick to point out the bad news, the closures, the beers that they think are boring. We need more events where people gather closely and share their thoughts on how great something is, or reminisce about a memory tied to a drink in their hand.
It’s just beer, but this one is a special one.
The tapping event is THIS Monday, 9/8/25, at 6 pm at Gabby’s Cafe in Wyoming. I’ll see you there.