Jolly Pumpkin Bam Noire

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

750 @ union jack’s. Pretty dark ruby black with a large ,craterous tan head. The aroma is cleanly sour, just the quality I expect from JP. Creamy palate with slightly roasty flavors. A nice level of funk is present along with mildly spiced notes. This is a supremely sessionable ale with more than enough complexity. Welcome to TN, jolly pumpkin!

from crackedkettle.com - pours a hazy dark brown colour under a very foamy beige head; nice lacing; aroma of bretts, berries and cream with notes of tea; gently sour and with a moderate malt body, quite dry and short slightly sourish fruity and vinegar-like finish - subtle and interesting

750 ml bottle. A hazy dark brown beer with a big, lacing, creamy and mostly lasting beige head. Unusual and rather powerful aroma, moderately yeasty, lightly malty and hoppy with notes of barnyard, toasted malts, citric fruits, spices and a hint of wood. The flavour is lightly to moderately sweet, moderately acidic, lightly bitter. Really odd and funky. Light to medium body, lively to fizzy carbonation, quite long finish with light to medium bitterness. A bit watery and maybe I’m overrating this beer, but it’s incredibly tasty for its light ABV. An amazing brewery.

Bottle pours a clear dark mahogany body topped by a large beige head. Excellent retention and abundant patch and curtain lace. Bold aroma is almost perfumey. Herbal, floral, grassy, and spicy, with notes of lemon and green apple, funk, and mint. Palate is a bit thin, but the carbonation is pleasantly effervescent. Taste is dry and herbal. Coriander and white pepper, some yeastiness, funk, lemon and kiwi tart fruitiness, and just a note of cola to suggest any darker malts. On a par with Jolly Pumpkin’s better funky ales.

On tap at the brewpub. A bit different than other saisons. Darker malts that mix well with a mild earthy taste. Some grassy hops, maybe? Light bodied. Drinkable, but not a whole lot of flavor going on.

THOUGHTS: Tons of flavor for such a low ABV beer. Very sour. Very Jolly Pumpkin. It went well with some Stilton cheese. Not a perfect compliment, but it completely cleansed my palate of the fatty cheese making each taste just like the first. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a clear, very dark red that could be described as crimson. It was bright red in the light with very nice carbonation and an average to large, off-white head that left excellent lacing. The beer became nearly opaque once the yeast was added. The aroma was moderate earthy and cobweb-like yeast, along with a little funk, apple, cherry, sour fruit, ever so slight spice that increased once the yeast was added. There was also a little citrus. The initial flavor was sour, tart, acidic and slightly sweet; while the finish was slightly sweet, tart, rather sour and a little bitter with a long duration. There was sour fruit, apple, cherry, yeast, a bit ’o funk, some metallic hops, a bit of red wine, and some spices once the yeast was added. It tasted a little like spiced apple cider. The light to medium body was very dry with very tingly carbonation an a moderate to heavily astringent and lightly dry finish.

On tap at Slow’s Bar-B-Q. Pours dark brown with an off-white head. Aroma is slightly sweet apple with caramel hints. Flavor is apple, bubblegum, cloves, with funky flavors I generally associate with tart and sour ales, but no sign of sourness. Quite a contradictory beer, with a flavor that doesn’t match its appearance and flavor notes that suggest sourness where there is none. Quite interesting.