Jolly Pumpkin Madrugada Obscura

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

This is one of those "goes down like wood and gives you that heavy feeling in the tummy" kinds of stouts. Sorry, just not for me. (Compare to: Sierra Nevada Stout.) Highlight is the candied aroma.

Looks like a stout should, black with a tan head. Upon tilting the glass it appears a very dark red/black. Surprisingly fruity on the nose, pineapples, bananas, strawberries with cocoa and fresh hops, odd... The flavor is of tart lemon, rasberry and strawberry, followed by soft espresso and hops. I think this is the wierdest mix of flavors from any beer I’ve ever had. I’m not sure I like it, but I wouldn’t expect a beer to be this good with that flavor profile.

Bottle. Pours a midnight black with an accompanying medium an head. Aroma of chocolate and coffee mixed in together. The moment the beer hits your tongue you are treated to a sour surprise. The tartness gives way to a nice espresso like mouthfeel. Finishes nice and dry. Very interesting beer.

Pours black and opaque with a full, tan, frothy, and pillowy head; head is mostly lasting and leaves excellent, tight lacing. Nose is interesing to say the least; milk chocolate, burnt caramel, coffee bean, light oak notes, and sour notes of overripe cherries. Flavor is some what ’obscure’ and almost confusing to my palate. The foreign stout notes include light lactic chocolate notes, light cedar hops giving a moderately light bitterness, burnt toast, and some chaulky notes; some flemish notes include sour overripe cherries and an oaken background. Palate is very vinous, moderate body, soft carbonation, and round in texture. Finishes with an average length, chaulky, burnt notes, and hints of sour dimenishing to some bitterness. Truly a weird and outstanding combination of a dry, foreign stout and a flemish style beer. A very vinous beer with stoutish notes which make for one intriguing beer. Not necessarily great but truly unique and one of the more interesting combinations of styles I’ve tried.

750 ml bottle

I’ve been meaning to crack this bottle open for a while now. With nobody to share it with though it has been hard to justify. I can handle most Jolly Pumpkin beers well on my own; this is not one of them. Thanks to chris_o for helping me finish off the bottle. Also thanks to whomever sent it to me in a trade.

Aroma / Appearance - The deep black body had all the typical hallmarks of a good stout. Only a trace of light was filtering through my St Bernardus glass. Thick lacing slid down the sides coating the interior in a thin film. The sourness is evident from the get go in the form of a vinous characteristic. Dark chocolate, bruwn sugar glazing and funk complete the nose which falls somewhere between a stout and Flemish sour in overall experience.

Flavor / Palate - The tart dryness screams Flemish sour from the first sip but then slowly the stoutiness takes over. An oakiness permeates the rich vinous texture. It tastes as if coffee somehow was spilled into a bottle of red wine and left to blend. The first half is all sour; the second all porter. Overall this is a rare and unique beer that you should make an effort to try.

This stuff is wild. Coffee and dark chocolate aroma. Flavor is funk and sourness with an espresso bitterness in the background.

Milky black with a medium tan head. Aromas of toasted malt, vanilla, alcohol, and a touch of coffee. Flavor is quite intense: burnt malt, bitter dark hops, coffee, and a hint of vanilla. While it is reasonably well balanced the alcohol makes a strong appearance in the finish, and roasted flavors endure on the palate.

This has a very dark brown, not black, body with a creamy, light umber head that shrinks to a film within a minute after the pour. The aroma is somehwat medicinal with the blending of lightly roasted malts, weak coffee, aniseed, and curdled cream. The lactic sourness keeps from from rating this very high, it disguising most of the other elements of the flavor. An interesting effort, but it falls short of my expectations.

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