Jolly Pumpkin Maracaibo Especial

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

750ml from Beerworld of Largo. Hazy brown in color with some red highlights and a large light tan head. Aroma is funk, sour cherry, molasses, and spices. Taste is also moderately funky with sour cherry, molasses/caramel, light pepper, yeast must, citrus, and spices. Medium bodied, finishes with some tart fruit, lingering light sourness.

Cloudy apricot brown; funky aroma of persimmon fruit. Flavors of tropical fruit rind, slight malt. Moderately sour and spicy.

Another wild one from Jolly Pumpkin. There doesn’t seem to be another American brewer even attempting the styles they tackle. This one pours a lovely clear cola brown with an eventual cm thick dense tan head, shards of lacing. Nose is, of course, richly sour, this time with notes of banana and granny smith apple, orange peel. Either you love it or you don’t. Massive on the palate and very frothy, with a huge puckering vinegar presence that cleanses towards slight chocolate character in the herbal finish, this is another unusual and worthy beer from JP.

750 mL bottle received from jrob_21. Pours hazy brown with an average, fizzy, light brown head, lasting with fair lacing. Aroma is average malt (bread, straw), heavy hops (flowers, citrus), average yeast (earth, barnyard) with notes of cherries and wood. Medium bodied, gritty texture, average carbonation, and a sour, bitter finish. Average duration, light sweetness, moderate acidity and bitterness.

750 ml bottle. Poured a cloudy orange brown color. Head settled to a lasting off white film after about a minute. Aroma was of sour fruits. The spices were also in there, but were fairly subtle. Effervescent and tart on the tongue. Lots of acidity throughout. Sour fruits dominated the flavor and masked the spices. I tasted some cherry, citrus, and white wine vinegar. Good beer if you like sours.

750ml Bottle: Very sweet vinous aroma with notes of chocolate, orange, dark fruits, alcohol, cinnamon, wood, banana, and bubblegum. Poured a medium to dark brown color with a tiny light brown head that diminished immediately. Very hazy. Very sparkling. Medium to heavy sweet and medium tart flavor. Tastes of red wine, alcohol, chocolate, dark fruits, blue cheese, cinnamon, and sour mix. Light to medium body. Tingly texture. Lively carbonation. Sweet, blue cheese finish. Overall, too much carbonation and an odd flavor.

Bottle. This pours a lovely brown color with some red highlights and is very transparent. Head is smallish and looks a little like tan soap suds. Aromas are vintage Jolly Pumpkin: sour and funky yeasts with a touch of spicing that is hard to define. Flavor is pungently sour and wild yeasty with a bit of a spice backfire at the end. Lemony citrus presence, a bit of a woody earth tone and a considerable amount of spicing in the form of cinnamon and white pepper with something odd from time to time. I’m wondering if it is the cacao, but there is a chalky little presence that makes itself known from time to time... I don’t know quite what to make of this, because, like most of my Jolly Pumpkin experiences I find that first sip like diving into a frozen lake... only to find that as I work my way through a bottle I’m totally upset that it is gone. Strange stuff, that JP.

pours brown with a thick foamy, fuzzy tannish brown head. At first taste the carbonation is strong it has a earhty, frutiy taste. I detect strong alcohol event though it comes in at 7.5% ABV, also detecting cherries? overall interesting experience but not to be done again in my opinion