Jolly Pumpkin Madrugada Obscura

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

This is a very unusal stout with a sweet to sour taste and a creamy brown head.This sort of taste like a good stout mixed with a flemish sour and i like both styles.CHEERS!!

Pours a dark brown, with some seethroughedness and a very thin white head. One of the few JP brews that I haven’t had explode on me! the nose is seriously badass. The sour funkiness is there, but more sour than funky, and less of both than most of the time. Roast coffee and slightly sweet chocolate malt push the sour character aside in a really nice marriage. Liberal hop character for a stout, a little piney and rather floral to citrus. The mouthfeel is thick and a little on the slimey side, but I mean that in a good way. Low carbonation. Man does the funk come back alive in the flavor. As does the oak. As does the roast. What I’m saying is there is a lot of flavor in this here beer. A fruity sharp cherry oak funk hits first, blending into the roast coffee. Really a very nice marriage of things you don’t find together. This is like a very tannic and not so fruity Bells Cherry Stout (which I didn’t much care for). In other words, this has some rough edges, but this is a marvelously bold brew, and I can commend anyone capable of producing something with so much complexity. There’s a slgiht bit of bittersweet chocolate, overshadowed by the funk, but coming back in the aftertaste, right before that piney roasted sourness. A lot of acidity. Rather tannic and oaky, but in agood way, blending in with the roast. I just think this rating is going to creep up more and more as I drink this thing.

Black pour with a small dense tan head. Moderate roasted malt aroma, hint of bitter coffee, slight citrusy hop presence and a more subdued sour funk than most of JP’s other brews. Initial flavor reminds of sweet ruby red grapefruit with a mild bitter coffee and bakers chocolate coming out in the finish. Medium body with a very soft carbonation.

750ml bottle, pours black with a little dark brown mixed in and gave tan bubbles, citrus, yeast and faint barn aromas, a sour aroma, roasted and dark malt aromas with some coffee and faint spice fragrances, big citrus sour on the tongue, some roasted malt and coffee flavors but they are subdued in the sour over layers, grapefruit citrus flavor that bites, dry on the palate, a bitterness in the mouth, lots of carbonation in the drink, I could not smell or taste any alcohol in this ale, as it warms up, the malt taste opens but the citrus sour follows along to keep the balance, this stout is not as heavy in the mouth as I have found with other stouts. I think this foreign stout would be thirst quenching on a hot Summer day, sure appears to be in another part of the spectrum for a foreign stout, as I sip this I keep thinking ‘Saison Stout’, the labels reads that this brew is ‘Pushed past the limits of sense and sensibilities’, it has a Belgian touch to it, this is certainly different then the other stouts I have tasted.

Light chocolate and coffee aroma comes from a dark, dark brown body with a nice head. The palate is very full. Now on to the taste...This is just a screwy mess of flavors here and it doesn’t work at all. Just because it’s Jolly Pumpkin doesn’t mean it has to be good people. Extremely bitter/sour flavors show up immediately and they run all over the roasted malt and light coffee flavors in the background. If this was put in a blind tasting, I bet most people would think it was a bad bottle.

Bottle. Dark, dark brown pour with a fizzy cola-like head... about two fingers high. Aromas are predominantly chocolatey, with a bit of wet earth, some wood and maybe a bit of smoke. Man, this is a little wierd. It starts with a bit of a chocolate punch, then transitions into a sour phase that is unique to Jolly Pumpkin, and then, if you wait for it, it finishes out with a bit of charcoal and chocolate aftertaste. I’m still not sure how I feel about the sour notes that JP seems to be so fond of. I can see where they’re going, I’m just not sure I want to be on the train.

Pours out a deep black color with a tan head. aroma has notes of choco, vinilla, and roasted malts. flavor is fairly malty and has the typical Jolly Pumpkin sour finish to it. I like this brewery. I have yet to have a bad beer from these guys.

opaque, can’t see a thing through it. head is beige and somewhat lacey. nose is of roast, slight vanilla, lactose, and slight chocolate. Hops are not that perceptible to the nose (at least this nose). flavor is mild roast, lactose, much more bitter. kinda bummed..seems as from what I’ve read recently, this is the hottest brewery around. Good, nothing special.