Jolly Pumpkin La Roja Grand Reserve

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

(Bottle, courtesy of Pailhead) Pours an amber-brown body with a small off-white head. Aroma of oak, brett, vanilla, caramel, and spices. Flavor of caramel malt, bourbon, vanilla, and fruit with a dry, oak finish.

Bottle. One of the biggest let downs of our tasting... I hope to re rate this one. Overly lactic/ brett nose. Somewhat sour with a crazy peppery flavor. Very tannic.

Big thanks to Ogglethorp for this one. A huge nose of whiskey, eggnog, sour, lactic and peppery. Taste is figs, oak, whiskey, vanilla with a nice dry finish. I’d now like to get a hold of the regular La Roja to find out the differences. Perhaps I did this a bit backwards? Oh well. A great mistake.

Bottle. Pours a hazy reddish-brown color with very little white head. Aroma is oak, citrus, yeast, bourbon. Flavor is tart, caramel, bourbon, yeast, oak. Palate is medium, low carbonation, tart, dry finish. Another winner.

Bottled (thanx to the american bunch). Pours reddish brown with a somewhat small head. Caramel malts, sour boubon and oaky. Berries and spices. Very complex and nice. Maybe a wee bit too thin bodied.

From a 12oz Bottle. Pours a lovely cherry brown color with a fiery tangerine hue. Nice clarity and a plentiful serving of lightly toasted marshmellow head. A bouquet of spiced braeburn apples and peach pits floats gracefully to my nostrils, sweetened with a bit of strawberry and kissed by a hint of brett. A touch of tangy barbequed hickory and some caramel malts round out this fabulous olfactory treat. Softly carbonated, light bodied mouthfeel that melts across the tongue. The first flavor wave brings shades of apple skins and pear flesh along with some ground green pepper spiced caramel malts. The flavors then get a bit thinner, cleaning the palate, prepping the tongue for the brett waves that follow. A musty horseblanket grips the tongue following the conclusion of light fruits, and are then followed up by a massive dose of dry, woody oak. As the dry oak notes slowly fade from the palate, more of the light fruits return to the tongue, bringing this brew full circle and leaving me smacking my lips in enjoyment over the red apples skin flavors that remain on the palate. What a beauty!

12oz Bottle. Square Label. Gold neck label with black print ’’Grand Reserve - oak aged 32 months.’’ Batch #48. A near flat pour produces a heavy waft of cherries and vinegar. Some coconut, pineapple and bread crust follow up. Tart, tangy and acidic, for sure. Hints of oak and bourbon blow through. A darker ruby-brown, murked and rim very faintly in a pencil-line of white. Dense, dense, dense flavor. Concentrated. Cherry juice, lactic and citric acid galore. Does this have grapes in it? Wow. Cheesy funk nestle into this bath of acids. The acetic character lays low enough that I don’t feel sick. Wow. Really sour. Light prickle of carbonation pushes some lemon and orange juice into the humors. Complex and dense. A really bright acidic fruit character, bristling with new under-ripe plums, cherry juice and guava. Very interesting. The bourbon and oak round the beer, but this might be a little too brash for me. I miss some of the La Roja’s original malt nuance and the Jolly Pumpkin funk. A little more saline and sugary and less cotton. A complex, sour monster. Rate Oct 21, 2008 8/4/8/4/16=4.0

12oz Bottle. Black Foil cap, with gold label stating,’’Grand Reserve Special oak aged blend.’’ Is this the 24 month version? Flickr(http://www.flickr.com/photos/26049401@N0 Intense crisp apple nose. Delicate and perfumed. Quick sensations of all things tart, lemon, candy, acids, and plant materials. Deeper the nose digs, to unearth a special rounded malt character. Slightly earthy but filled with soft sugars, the fruit and malt complex of this beer lies somewhere on the vinous aged barleywine spectrum, adding astounding balance and complexity to the already heavy sour character. Stunning. Pours a clouded, yet slightly transparent red-amber, with a thin rim in off-white head. Flavor excites me. Dry, palateable sugars come first, followed by vacously billowing acid and carbonation complexity and then a long, long sweep of older hop character. My palate has been excruciatingly sensitive to old and

First of all thanks to ross for sharing this rare beer. Pours out a murky brown almost the color of wastewater with a foamy little head. Smell is oak, fruit, and alcohol. This stuff really hits on the bourbon flavor with a bit tartness like a cider of some kind. Good stuff and interesting beer!