Jolly Pumpkin Bam Noire

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

Dark reddish brown pour with a a frothy, 1 finger, off-white head. Aroma is orange, apple, cinnamon, caramel, wet wood. Flavor is pepper, mixed fruit, tart sour apple. The finish is dry, thin and watery with a lingering damp wood note. Medium thin body with lots of carbonation.

750 ml bottle from Pizza Port’s bottle shop. For some weird reason, the aroma of this brew smells like canned tuna or a tuna salad and that’s not very appetizing to start it off with. The appearance is a tea brown with a creamy layer of film gently sitting on top. In the flavor a weak and light presence of yeast is detected with watered down taste of malt. Aftertaste is empty and strange and overall I was unsatisfied with my experience with this ale.

Pour from a 750ml bottle - Blend of batches 262 & 263. Darker brown with a reddish tint and a slightly foamy off-white head. Aroma has that great Bam sour/funk/earth/yeast going on with some light oak. Flavor has some nice woodiness to go with the standard yeasty/acidic/sour Bam Bier taste. Oak is subtle but makes this beer smooth and tasty. Nice mouthfeel. Maybe a notch below the regular Bam, but still a masterpiece. How this much goodness can be packed into a sub 5% ABV beer is beyond me. Brilliant!

Deep red brown with lots of off-white head billowing forth. Aroma: hints of fruit mixed with some freshly cut wood but overall really understated. Flavor: Juuuust a bit of cherry mixed in with a lot more bitterness than tartness. ..really good beer but I was hoping for a bit more sweetness mixed with the tart. Much more bitter/burnt tasting than I was expecting. Lots of points though for doing something different with beer and showing that experimentation does work. Me gusta.

12 oz. bottle. Pours a beautiful deep reddish color with a slighly off-white head that dissipated quickly leaving a lot of lace behind. Tha aroma is full of fruit(red fruits - cherry?), malt, sour funk, and a little spice. The flavor follows suit with the aroma. It is an interesting combination of things, the spicy funky saison thing mixed with the malty fruit Belgian Ale style. Its like someone mixed 2/3 Saison and 1/3 Dubbel. Now for the not so great part. It seems a little too fizzy to me, which always seems to make a beer seem thinner of body than it is. Overall, however, a pretty good beer.

Pours hazy deep brown with 2-fingers of off-white head and great lacing. The aroma is tart cherry, sour mashy malt, mild chocolate. The taste is tart figgy and cherry fruit, malt, and some peaty earthy spicy notes at mid-palate. The palate is rich and complex, and this one is another winner from JP.

750 mL bottle, Batch 262, 263. Chestnut brown in color with a thick light tan head. Classic JP funky aroma, bordering on tart, nice and earthy. It seems the taste has a more aggressive bite to it than regular Bam, but its still pretty subdued. Lengthy herbal finish. Another winner from Jolly Pumpkin.

Pours with a reddish-brown body topped by a medium thick, off-white head with some lacing. It’s slighty sour and bitter with notes of vinegar. Light bodied and dry.