Jolly Pumpkin E.S. Bam

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

POurs reddish/brass, big foamy head and thick lacing. Big bret funk on the nose , lemon, horseblanket, sour cherry. Flavor lacks the sourness in the nose, but has plenty of hop and funk to it. Makes the edge of my jaw tingle, so it must be sour, but it’s not as apparent on the tongue. Alcohol very subtle, probably due to the low ABV. Nice.

Batch 278. The beer pours to a dark amber body with a huge foamy meringue light beige head. Awesome retention, shape, and awesome lacing. Root beer floats is what the head looks like. The aroma is a hoppier version of Bam Biere. It’s also really toffee-ified under all the nice sour tartness. The flavor is toffee, something like a muddled Bing cherry, tart saison character too. A rich refreshing creamy body that finishes clean. Great!

Pours clear, dark copper with a ruby tinge. A massive four-inch head swelled up to the brim with a gentle pour. The dense, bone-colored foam slowly receded to a rocky mass, and eventually to a solid skim coat. Lacework aplenty throughout, with loads of ripped sheets and clingy webbing. Aromatics lead off with tart fruit, grassy hops, biscuity malt, and earthy funk. Cherries smashed on cut grass in a farmyard. Menthol-like brett follows through along with mature cheesecloth. Medium bodied, creamy with a crispish edge. Drying and tart. Dried fruits, wet hay, and earthy hops start off the pallet. Lemon pith, grapefruit zest, and green straw. Some bone-dry malt follows through along with a mild peppery note and lingering earthiness. Finishes with a firm bitterness, drying funk, and fading tart fruits. Less tart and intense than most of the other JP beers, but it’s got a great balance. Certainly subdued in the hops though.

Pours out amber / pale brown. Head and retention is massive. Nice bit of spice, hop, and malt aromas. The taste is crisp with tart undertones. A bit watery but still very enjoyable. Overall, there is enough interesting flavors here to make this tasty beer but....for $13.00 for a 750ml. I wish it came in 12oz.

Pours a relatively clear brown with a big frothy head, with pretty interesting lacing. Aroma of malt, spice, yeast, bread. Taste is lightly sweet, with some acidity and plenty of yeast. Finish is dry and body is on the light side. Very nice saison.

its like bams big brother. slightly darker and more flavorfull. yeast and malt with a bit of the jolly funk. decent wet clear head attop the almost brown burnt orange.

25 oz bottle. Pours a dark amber body with a great one finger fizzy off-white head that retained forever because of the active carbonation. An odd mixture in the nose of slightly fruity malts with a bright hoppiness. There’s lots of yeastiness, some spice, and a bit of a farmhouse undertone. The balance of this seems to tip in favor of the hops at first, but the more I drink and the warmer it gets, the more the Saison funkiness emerges. The hops seem to be coming across as a bit metallic though. Then combining with the band-aid laced finish, it all becomes a little medicinal. Mouthfeel is on the watery side with lots of spritzy fizzy carbonation. Overall, this was pretty decent, but not an improvement over the regular Bam. Extremely drinkable in large gulps.

Batch 278: Rusty orange. Gentle pour yields a large off-white head which consists of large and small bubbles. Boisterous phenols leap from the glass and into the nose. Very clean and focused aromas, with notes of Band-Aid, peach skin, sherbet, plaster, nutty malts (toasted pecans) and a whisper of lime and pineapple. Expressive carbonation. Crackly and toniclike. Slick and somewhat watery body. Dangerously quaffable and virtually weightless from the get-go, as the brett-induced phenols are heavily airy, snappy and feisty. Ensuing, yet all too short-lived, surge of sweet, palate-filling nutty malts couples with hints of plastery yeast supply the core with much-needed body and trace sweetness. Hops are delicate and restrained, merely contributing teasing notes of flowers and sharply herbaceous qualities before succumbing to the robust dryness. Hops are far from vibrant or explosive, however, and the malt is only able to hang on for so long, as the beer is very dry and borderline oversaturated with the palate-scrubbing phenols. Vague medicinal astringency further tarnishes the softer hop remnants as it coincides with brisk minerals which scratch at the back of the palate toward the swallow. Mild bite of black pepper exerts itself but fails to dig deeply into the underlying unripe-peach tartness. Finishes exquisitely soft, well-rounded and Band-Aid laden, but curiously devoid of flavor, particularly hop bitterness which it sorely lacks. Malt is also almost entirely nonexistent. While a commendable effort, like several other Jolly Pumpkin beers, this suffers ever so slightly (and I emphasize “slightly”) from overattenuation and rampant phenols.