Jolly Pumpkin La Roja

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

Bottle, blend 12. Aroma starts off light when chilled, but slowly grows from vague sourness to sour fruitiness to sour woodiness and ultimately leads into flavor characteristics by hinting of a sour, green (in a good way) earthiness. This earthiness is where the flavor takes off with an almost gritty nature to the ever-present sourness, including the wood, very tart, dry coffee (especially in the finish), and rotten fruits (but again, in a good way, I apologize if rotten fruits in a good way doesn’t make sense, but so it goes). Very, very interesting, very, very good, and certainly a brew to be revisited.

Bottle, blend 12, 2007. Pours a cloudy brown with a small white head. Aroma of tart, sour fruits, some alcohol. Initial flavor of sour fruits, then in the aftertaste I got crackers, coffee, roasted meat. Certainly an interesting beer. It lacks the sweetness I’ve seen in other sours (not that this was a negative, just an observation). Tasty.

Bottle, blend 10, 2007. Cloudy reddish-brown with a thin white head that dissipates quickly. Sweet and sour aroma of malt, brandy, and sour fruits. Taste is quite sour, of underripe fruit, with woodsy hints. Lingering sourness. Very tasty sour ale.

Bottle, from the BSF at the GBBF, shared with Fin, Loz and Traci at our American beer tasting night. Deep amber, off-white layer of head--not much of it, but what’s there is nice and sticky. Soft brown sugar aroma, ginger, wool and leaf mould, old wine. Just a touch of vanilla. First sip rather tart, but very quickly the tartness fades, and there is leather and peppery spice along with the sort of warm fruity quality of muscovado sugar but without the sweetness. Prickly fine carbonation, dry and very moorish. First beer of the night, and maybe my favorite of the tasting.

Bottle shared with Casey, Tracey and Loz at a great American tasting evening 11-04-08 hosted by Casey and Tracey, cheers mate! This beer has some old wine characteristics on the nose (noticed by Loz) and aroma wise was really quite like an vintage red classy wine. Pours deep amber with a white head and a tiny speck of orangey yeast sat on top of that head, slowly the aroma changes to that of an old forest with slightly wet and musty leaves being kicked up by each footfall. Lovely gentle fizzical thing going on in the mouth, with a good sourness there as well. Tingly tangy sweet and sour fruitiness with a gentle rush of wild bitter cherries. At the edges there is a bittersweet toffee thing starting to show and a nice earthiness to it continues to impress and fizzess gently on the tongue, lovely beer. Great start to the evening!

Seriously infected bottle. Pours reddish brown with little or no head. 10% fizzed out upon opening. Smells like a sour with minimal funkiness. Smells a little "off" Tastes a lot "off.’ Very metallic taste, which, when combined with the sourness, comes close to putrid. Really watery with no carbonation. Drain pour. This bottle should never have been sold. I’ll rerate when I get another bottle, but since this is the bottle I got, this is what I’ll rate. Worst beer experience I’ve had in a long, long time.

bottle shared with CapedBrewsader... Brown tinge of red ... woody nose ... very woody some malts ... little sourness ... odd subdued but not working for me. Glad i shared this with some one who appreciated it.

My friend Garrett and I had been looking forward to our first taste of Jolly Pumpkin, so when the Michigan brewer finally landed in Colorado we had ourselves a double feature. La Roja was first up, pouring a hazy red-orange topped of lasting cream. The aroma is sadly vague. Though interesting scents are present, none of them are assertive enough to veritably grab the drinker. A slight earthy funkiness, asparagus, damp soil, these are the tones that quietly form La Roja’s nose. Hints of apple and sour pear, a modicum of brown sugar and leather; some grain, some grape and a sort of industrial steel-meets-concrete smell. Switching to the palate, the sourness gains in weight, a favorable development. Grassy and woody, the barrel’s influence is evident. The flavors of tobacco, pepper, black cherry and hay are well in tune with the creamy mouthfeel. A nice brew, for certain, but I was expecting a little more punch. (20/05/07)