Pumpkin Beer Beef Chili

This is the chili that tastes like the first cold weekend of fall — the one where you dig a sweater out of the closet and want something simmering on the stove. Pumpkin does double duty here: the purée thickens the pot and lends an earthy, faintly sweet body, while a bottle of pumpkin ale cooks down into caramel-malt depth you can't get from broth alone. A whisper of cinnamon ties it to the season without tipping into pie territory. It's still a hearty beef-and-bean chili at heart — just one that happens to taste like October.

A dollop of sour cream and toasted pepitas lean into the autumn theme; cornbread is the natural partner.

Any malty amber or brown ale subs for pumpkin ale if you can't find it. Ground turkey works for a lighter pot. Like most chili, it deepens overnight.