Jolly Pumpkin Noel de Calabaza

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

Blend 4, 2007. Brown, with an off white head. Aroma is spices, funk, yeast, and cherries. Flavor is cherries, oak, funk, yeast, and apples. A little sour. Alcohol is well hidden. Very good.

Aged 1 year. Pours a hazy brown into a Tulip. Fluffy off-white head leaves sheet lacing as it slowly recedes. Sour cherry and barnyard funk. Crisp and sour upfront with an oaky malt middle with a lasting sour apple and cherry finish. Quite nice.

Blend 2, 2007, big bottle pours out a very hazy copper brown color with a monster off white head and short lived lace. the aroma is big yeast, floral, slight funk, spice, and tartness. The flavor spicy, slightly funky, decent malt undertones, sort of sour, green apple, some oak, kind of dry, pretty quenching, and well coordinated. I just realized it is supposed to be a 9% ABV brew - alcohol is very well hidden! This is another of their beers I wish I had with a hearty meal. The palate is Belgian, quenchy, and cleansing - finishes clean. Overall, not bad.

Pours a real nice dark brown color with the perfect amount of bubbly foamy tan head that lasts. Aroma is brown sugar, tart cherries and other dark fruits, and some pumpkin spice. Flavor is an interesting blend of tart fruitiness with more traditional belgian strong ale flavors like a strong sweet caramel maltiness with a yeasty spice. I like the concept, but it doesn’t blow me away. Overall, def worth a try.

Not sure which blend; I’ll have to get back to you guys on that after I alphabetize my adult DVD collection, which might take awhile. At any rate, the pour is turbid deep brown in color with a clingy khaki head. The aroma is tart cherry, spicy malt, some funky Bretty notes, and subdued oaky bourbon. The palate is complex, with all sorts of flavor hints flying around. I noted some krieky tartness, malt, Bretty spiciness, oaky bourbon, and some figgy brown sugary notes. This is very good, and i wish I had a bottle to age, because I’ll bet this one will age wonderfully.

This one poured a murky brownish color with a medium off white head. The aroma was of sour citrus fruits with the JP funk and tartness. It tasted at first of sweet malts and caramel with a good amount of dark fruits and figs. The funk and sourness come through next and blend with the other flavors. This is medium bodied with a good amount of carbonation and sourness to it. The finish is nice with a slight bitterness and sweetness left behind. Another good one from these guys. I hope I get to try this one again.

Once upon a time, I lived in Michigan. Michigan has good beer. One day, I went to the store and saw a new beer. Jolly Pumpkin. Only in bombers. I bought a few. They were amazing. Rich and full of flavor. At the Michigan Beer Fest, we’d sample stuff not out in bottle. Sour beers. Amazing. Then one day, Jolly Pumpkin made everything lambic. Everything. That funky sour taste started to make many of their beers taste similar. Noel is a fine example. It is good, yes. And I like sour and funky. But it doesn’t add too much that other Jolly Pumpkins don’t already offer. Not every beer has to be funky in flavor. New yeast strains, please. Brett has limits.

it’s 11 degrees out with a fierce windchill....i just got home from biking back from work...need something dark, warm, deep, rich and mystical...maybe this will do...only one way to know... noel de calabaza, off goes your cap, and into my Big Ass tripel karmeliet glass you go... dark brown color, mahogany mixed with prunes, or plums...somewhere around there, with a full creamy tan head...gorgeous! bewitching aroma! dark fruits find the funk! raisins, plums, dates, as well, meet grapes, and berries, and port wine...a wicked mix! with fragrances of myriad spices, as well, an ethereal delight! A tickle as it trickles into the mouth, and spills all over the palate. Malty, sour, slick, supple, slightly sweet, and terribly complex...a lot of stuff happening here. Dark fruits at play, a rich blend of grain and fruit, velvety smooth, with a sleek, sensual mouthfeel. full bodied, long finish, dark and delicious...this is one, despite being, as we say in minnesota, "spendy", that I may have to return to again and again...best jp beer i’ve yet had...damned good! the 9% abv seems to stick to my ribs a bit, but doesn’t ring in the brain, yet...oh, wait...there it goes! i didn’t notice the oak-aged effect, but now that i re-read the label, hey, yeah, there it is! great stuff!