Jolly Pumpkin Maracaibo Especial

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

750 ml bottle. Hazy copper brown with a fizzy tan head. Over-ripe fruit and cinnamon aroma. Slightly sour caramel, citrus, brown sugar, molassess taste with chocolate notes to the finish.

Bottle. Deep brown copper in color with a nice fluffy off white head that left a nice lacing on the glass. Chocolatey caramel sour aroma. Chocolatety caramel notes. Dry Vineous tasting. Sour. Decent. Interesting.

The bottles from this brewery are fantastic. Beer looks pretty good too - a lovely red with light haze and decent head. Again there’s a stark aroma of apple cores and pepper with sultanas, cloves, cherries, chocolate and spices like cinnamon and anise. The house style which really ruined La Roja for me works a lot better in this beer, but I still don’t love it. There’s a vague hint of the Rodenbach’s about it... but it’s nowhere near that good. In the mouth it’s dry, tart and grainy with chocolaty malt and noticeable roastiness and the associated astringency. The malt character is actually quite rich whilst the beer is extremely dry, which actually works well. But there are weird harsh phenols, rotting fruit character and an astringent woodiness to it too. The weird fermentation stuff actually works a lot better in this one, but it doesn’t necessarily make it good. The tartness is the most enjoyable aspect, but there’s too much other stuff clanging around for me to really like it. That said, it was interesting - if not that enjoyable - to drink. Many thanks (again) to Linc.

Rather vinous nose, with cocoa powder and cola aromas quite distinctly backing. Fairly subtle sourness in flavor with good spice on the finish.

Medium reddish brown color with short white head. Sour almost barnyard aroma with orange peel and malt. The flavor is quite interesting: slightly sour malt, cinnamon orange coffee cake, and a sour finish. A nice beer although not my favorite offering from Jolly Pumpkin...

I think the mantle of sour brewer is being battled between Soy-Erezée, Belgium and Dexter, MI. Dexter, MI....wtf, but thank goodness there is at least a competition, which is good for us beer drinkers. Pours a hazy ruby brown with a medium off-white head, the lacing is embodied by some lively carbonation. Aroma is first off; sour followed by yeast and lastly the orange peel. I feel kind of confused by the description of cacao, in its raw form it really has no chocolate qualities but when processed it does but it then becomes chocolate. As such I did not detect any chocolate qualities. Taste is tart, if that is a taste quality, mildly spicey with some orange peel at the end, although to me it tastes as if they left too much of the pith on the peel. A medium dry finish with a lingering aftertaste, remnants from the sourness, a bit watery. Very nice for the price.

Hazy orange/brown, some yeast floaties, with an off-white head. Bracingly tart nose, with some barnyard notes, a bit of cherry, a hint of chocolate. Very dry. Moderately tart, with a very interesting blend of fruitiness--cherries and oranges, mostly--with chocolate. Some earthy notes and lemon in there as well. Quite interesting indeed.

Pours a translucent ruddy, glowing brown with a nice, thick, sustaining head. Rich aromas of a classic Belgian sour ale. The taste is complex and contradictory: earthy but not malty, with bitter cinnamon notes, and fruity qualities that are at once sour, tart, and dry. I can’t really detect the cacao and I might not have noticed the hint of orange peel if the label hadn’t mentioned it, but there’s still a lot going on here. It finishes with a nice, sharp, tartness. Excellent.