Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere

Brewed by Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales
Style: Saison
Dexter, Michigan USA

12 oz. bottle. Strong, sharp, fruity aroma with apple juice, pair, and maraschino cherry scents. Pours a slightly hazy but mostly clear, pale brass. Produces a very impressive, long-lasting tornado of bubbles in the center of the glass. Huge, uneven, thick, off-white head. Extensive, thick lacing. Fantastic appearance. One of the best looking beers I’ve ever seen. Sour, salty, bitter, dry taste. Champagne-like. Apple juice and lemon elements. Yeasty bitterness. Dry finish. Bitter aftertaste. Smooth and lively in the palate. Light to medium body. Easy to drink and refreshing. Bam Biere is an extreme beer in aroma, appearance, and flavor despite its low alcohol content. It is a very interesting brew, moreso than my good but not great score might indicate.

12 oz from Sams off of Clybourn. Nice hazy orange/yellow with large fluffy white, long lasting head. Spicy, sweet malt aroma with citrus, lemon, and some funk. Flavor of funky lemon with what I’m slowly beginning to understand as a JP yeast quality, orange, a little hop in there, white wine qualities, very good. Med fizzy body but appropiate. Refreshing, complex, a very nice beer to get in a sixer. 7/4/8/3/17 ----- Tasted again on 12/20/07----- Part of a side by side with bam noire and leelanau whaleback white (also brewed by JP). Hazy straw color with large white head. Aroma is oaky and subtle spicy yeast with added orange peel. Flavor is very oaky and spicy though not as sweet as I remembered it. Medium bodied with a little tart pucker. Oh how I love this beer, though I think I like the leelanau one more.

Pours a slightly hazy, golden color with a moderately full, brilliant white, creamy-fluffy head with decent longevity and scattered lacing. Nose is pleasant but simple; floral bouquet and yeast with light spicy notes, faint esters, and a bit of wet hay funkiness. Flavor is nice but lacks depth; lightly tart notes of lemons and lemon peel with a decent acidity but flavor shifts towrds the hops quickly, drying out leaving dry hop notes. Lightly spicy notes with a touch of wet hay and a more than moderate bitterness. Finishes fairly long and dry with lemon peel, wet hay, and a fairly sharp bitterness. Palate is moderately light, nearly fizzy, and mostly quenching with a dryness as it progresses. A fairly decent saison with plenty of drinkbility and sharp bitterness to match a quenching acidity. Excellent as a table strength saison, althogh the stronger versions are usually more to my liking. Looking forward to trying more JP beers since they are now shipped to Fort Collins!

++++ Re Rate 15 May 2009 ++++
750 ml bottle, capped, purchased at Royal Liquors in Kansas City. Batch 280/281 labeled on sticker stuck to the back of the bottle (Brewed - 280: 2/19/08, 281: 2/20/08, To Oak: 2/25/08, Bottled: 3/20/08 and 3/25/08). Pour is cloudy hazy yellow golden white with a fluffy 2 inch pure white head. Nice lacing. Aroma of Brett, earthy, funky, pepper, spicy clove, and some bright lemon citrus. Taste is brett sour, funk, wheat earthiness, lemon citrus, floral - bright pepper spice. Tons going on, super well integrated. Palate is bone dry, medium thin, crazy drinkable. I liked this so much more this time around. So good. (9,4,9,5,18 - 4.5)

++++ Original Rating 15 Jul 2007 ++++
12 oz. bottle from MrBendo. Pour is hazy yellow gold with lively carbonation and a big, fluffy white head. Aroma is a bit of farmyard funk with nice earthiness. Smells like a Saison. There is also some nice sweetness in it as well. Taste is citric, tart grapefruit and lemon with an easy smooth palate which makes this very drinkable. There was some nice hoppiness in the finish, also well as some black pepper spiciness. Nice complexity, well done. (8,4,7,4,15 - 3.8)

Sampled as a guest tap at Dieu du Ciel.

As saison-ish as it gets, minus perhaps the chunky deposits. A peachy yellow that wasn’t completely opaque and a thin but sturdy head. Nice lacing.
Heavily Brett influenced with probably some hallertauer gives it really pleasing pepper and wet hay aromas. I found it to be similar to really fresh Orval, but with more of an acidity to it. I likey!
That acidity really shines through in the taste, as it constricts your tongue with the very first sip. A pleasing, fruity flavor - without being sweet at all - follows and bittersharp finish that was like grapefruit juice, or perhaps a really dry cider. The hops show up big time in the aftertaste and is quite long lasting.
Wickedly drinkable, that acidity and thin body makes it a Beer I could drink by the gallon. Probably one of the best US-made Saisons I’ve ever had. My first samplings of JP didn’t thrill me, but I’m a believer now with this Beer.

Murky orange-gold with huge foamy head / Perfumed, funky sour yeast and apple nose / Light, crisp and tart body, with great hop balance and finish / Sour, bretty flavors of green apple, green pepper, lemon, coriander, and funk / It could be a saison, it could be a wit, but it’s unmistakably Jolly Pumpkin. A masterpiece, but like all JPs, an acquired taste.

Straw colored pour a bit cloudy mild foamy white head. Nose is light spice and yeastiness with the slightest hopage. I find these beers in general to be boring and more for turkey dinner or something and this one did nothing out of the ordinary to change those opinions.

great summer beer. nice and tart with a good effervescent carbonation that wipes your palate clean. honestly, i dont get any of the spiciness or yeastiness that i get in most saisons...but the tartness is very pleasant and goes down really easy.