Jolly Pumpkin Bière de Mars Grand Reserve

Formerly brewed at Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales
Style: Sour Ale
Dexter, Michigan USA

Thanks so much to amorphiss for including this as an extra! 12oz, aged in barrels 27 months. Think this is batch 2. Pours a muddy, dark reddish brown with a small trace of a white head. Though the carbonation is apparently scarce it still manages to create decent lacing. Aroma is pretty potent acetic acid, slight vinnegar-like. Reminds me a lot of a fresh Roja, actually. Intensely fruity, lots of sour cherries. I’m searching for bourbon and I think I find it, though it certainly is more subdued than imagined, especially after 27 months worth of resting. A little bit of oaky vanilla is detectable underneath there as well. All of the characteristics blend together well, creating a powerful though subtle fusion of pleasant aromas. Taste is pretty darn tart. A real nice cherry flavor follows the intitial sour smack that fades into an acidic aftertaste. A good level of sourness, certainly more than most of JPs brews. A slight alcohol burn while going down but nothing distracting. The bourbon isn’t overpowering and hardly noticeable honestly. I am a big fan of Jolly Pumpkin and this is certainly one of their greatest achievements.

Pours an amber/orange in color. Only a little bit of froth on top, but that quickly disappears. Smell is funky, oak. Not getting any bourbon in the nose, just the nice vanilla and lots of oak from the barrels. Taste is plenty of sour, with a lot more of the oak settling in on the back end of the taste. I would like just a hint of bourbon, but this is all oak. Easy drinking, not thin or over carbonated. Very good.

Very very nice. Bottle shared by Sprinkle. I hate to rate a sample (especially when I didn’t take notes until afterward) but this one was top notch and deserving. Looks almost like dark orange juice, with lots of stuff floating around. Aroma is sour and funky, no bourbon to be found. Likewise, the flavor is bourbon free, and all sour and funky. The sourness is sharp and bitter, like an extra strong Sour Patch Kid. Nice fruit flavor, strong and dark. Once the bitterness fades, the flavor has some notes of carmel and yeast. Slightly warming. A very excellent brew that I’m thankful I got to try!

Bottle from kryptic. Thanks Mike! Brought to Bill’s sour tasting. Very sour. I think this is the sourest beer I’ve ever tried. It’s really surprizing, since most of the JP beers I’ve tried aren’t sour. Lots of funky feet smell in the aroma. Amber color. Medium body.

12 oz bottle

This was from the first batch and had a few years on it. I needed something good to get out of a funk of predictable and safe beers. A Grand Reserve release was just the ticket. I consider this one of the best beers around if you can find any from the last bottling. If not keeps your eyes open and pick it up when you can. The sourness only gets better with time.

Aroma / Appearance - The caramelized opaque body suspended a trace of sediment below a sticky eggshell head. Chocolate, oak and malt formed a very rich set of aromas with the sourness set to medium. This was not super tart but obviously had a bit of funk to it.

Flavor / Palate - Oaky cola blended with dark truffles formed a very nice desertlike experience. Chocolate and caramel preceded a carbonated moist aftertaste of plums and cherries. The mouthfeel was full bodied, rich and complicated. It was a nice capstone to wrap up a busy day.

12oz @ Bill’s Sour tasting, nicely provided by my buddy John, Wetherel. Batch 64, 27 months old. Pours orange/red with a bright white ring. Nose is sweet and funky. Taste is sweet wtih cherry notes and oak and bretty and quite strong. Nice brew.

12oz - batch 65 - thanks Sephiroth - Aroma is funky JP on oak with some lingering bourbon notes. Pours cloudy dark red-brown with a little head and decent lacing. Flavor is sour cherry, funky yeast, oak, vanilla and bourbon. Palate is very tart and dry. I love sours and JP house funk so this one is a big winner.

Bottle, Ba#65. Pours a clear golden straw color with a small off white head. Aroma is light malts, bourbon, tart cherries, oak. Flavor is tart cherries, oak, vanilla, light bourbon, grass. Palate is medium bodied, medium carbonation, finished tart and refreshing. This was a fantastic brew! I had thought that 27mo on BB would add too much bourbon and oak flavors, however it was just about perfect, the bourbon only added complexity. Nice and refreshingly tart, with an aroma to die for!! Spectacular all the way round.