Jolly Pumpkin Maracaibo Especial

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

17th May 2008. Slight sour with an undertone of chocolate and coffee. Vague fruity notes and a little subtle spice in the very dry finish. Decent US Belgian!

Bottle, 75cl. Pours an unclear brownish beer with a big offwhite head. The aroma is spices with some acidity. The flavor is complex and spiced. The palate is very special, and the aftertaste changes over time. Overall this beer is strange and has some very odd flavors.

Bottle. 25.4 oz. Pours deep honey brown with a mighty, solid, beige head with specks of sediment. Aroma of hops, citrus, barley, walnuts, wheat, and hints of pepper and earth-tones, Full bodied with a smooth, creamy mouthfeel. Excellent Belgian strong. Really enjoying Jolly Pumpkin’s offerings.

I’d been holding off on this one because it was $15 but then I found one for $12 so that was easier to stomach. This was clear, amber, and didn’t have much of a head at all despite the massive foam building inside the bottle, maybe my glass was not clean enough. The smell was quite buggy, suggesting sour as well as brett funkiness. The taste was very strange, at first it was like a sour, cherries but then there would be flashes of what I recognize as a brown ale as well as a little bit of the cacao but no other discernible spices. This was interesting but not something I would buy a second time. Serving type: bottle Reviewed on: 10-08-2009 21:40:55

Thanks Mom and Dad! Nose is brett, textbook brett c. dusty with some cinnamon and pie spices, alcohol note. Big chocolate flavour, with a good acid balance. There is a rost taste with some citrus (sweet orange). Barrels have added expected, and enjoyed vanillian and tobaccos notes. batch 254

Bottle, bought @ Ølbutikken, Cph.
Comes pouring out of the bottle. Pours clear brown amber with a giant, steady, creamy, off-white head. Heavy fruity and oaky aroma. Raspberries, red apples, vanilla, caramel, yeast, plums. Highish carbonation, fine dry mouthfeel. Flavour is light vinious, tart and some metallic off-notes. Caramel and fruit make up the sweetness with clear dry cocoa. Lovely aftertaste where the cocoa really takes over, finishing harsh and dry. The tartness is perhaps a bit too much in this one compared to other JP offerings, or at least doesn’t seem to balance it quite as well. But this is still a lovely oak-aged Belgian.

Bottle courtesy of peter. Foggy sweet potato red color with tinges of orange. Sweet smells with a large feeling of tartness. The tartness has a citrus resemblance. Some levels of brown sugar sweetness with a bit of flavored spice. Taste has some tartness upfront with a coffee flavor after. Sweetness is abound but latent and difficult to coax out. Dry finish, fantastically flavored.

THOUGHTS: This was the third beer from these guys that I’ve tried. It would get boring drinking only their beer, but if I was ever craving that Jolly sourness, I could pretty much have any of their beers and be satisfied. Not an everyday beer by a long shot, but wonderful whenever I get the urge. This was brett done right. They just let it do what it wants. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Batch 349. Poured a dark brown with reddish amber highlights and a large foamy, cream colored head that slowly diminished, keeping a fairly thick sheet that coated the sides of the glass. The aroma was very light coffee, moderate sour fruit and funky yeasts, spices and an unsweetened cocoa powder kind of smell. The initial flavor was sour, acidic and a little sweet; while the finish was very sour, acidic and lightly bitter with average flavor duration and long sour astringency. There was sour fruits, acidic funk, spices, slight cocoa that was more of an unsweetened powdered cocoa, and a little actual chocolate flavor at the end of the bottle. The light to medium body, which was probably really medium, but with all the carbonation it felt lighter, was sort of creamy then dry with very fizzy carbonation and a dry and moderately astringent finish. The whole palate feel just made me want to keep sipping.