Review 134: Jolly Pumpkin Oro De Calabaza

Review 134

1/18/13

Jolly Pumpkin Oro De Calabaza: 8% abv

Background: Jolly Pumpkin is a brewery which as several locations in Michigan, including Traverse City, Ann Arbor, and Dexter. Jolly Pumpkin is known for their “sour” beers, which might sound odd to you if you’re new to the beer world. Otherwise, you’re familiar with this. We have reviewed a few sour beers with little favorability, so this golden ale should be an interesting test for us.

Nose: Complex, lemon, honey, apple, fruit, tart, cantaloupe, wheat, blackberry tart, vanilla bean, parsley, greens, pink grapefruit, slight rosemary, strawberry, light green grapes.

Arrival: Tart, sour, tangy, sour apple, apple (honey crisp), bitterness, buttery, lime

Body: Grapefruit, sour, honey, lemon, crisp, vanilla, golden wheat, peach, pear

Finish: Caramel, grape skin (green), golden wheat, bitter, grapefruit, blackberries (un-ripened), pear, peach, lemon-lime, medium-short finish

Final Comments: We found this beer to have an inviting, complex nose that was well balanced, tart, bitter, and sour. It could be described as unique and inviting. This is a moderately complex beer, but it really shines in its uniqueness. This is a great introduction into beers for non-beer drinkers, and this is probably our most favored sour beer we’ve tried thus far.

Why you’d buy it: You are interested in tart, fruity flavors, or just want to try something out of the ordinary

Why you wouldn’t: You tried one to many of those warhead candies when you were younger and now you have post-sour-trauma.

Score: 9.0/10

Review 121: Jolly Pumpkin La Roja

Review 121

12/16/12

Jolly Pumpkin La Roja: 7.2% abv

Jolly Pumpkin is something else. A brewery around several areas in Michigan including Traverse City and Ann Arbor, JP specializes in sour beers. The last time we did a sour beer, the result wasn’t the best in our minds. Despite this, we aren’t going to be deterred and wanted to try another one. Remember, KCM uses three main criteria for scoring their reviews: uniqueness, complexity, and quality. A second tier of qualifiers includes drinkability, price, and personal preference if the panel isn’t decisive enough. I say that because I need to preface this review. The idea of a sour beer is that while the mash is being created, the beer is allowed to be infected by bacteria (science can be gross, folks) and this bacteria produces a sour biproduct. This is the core concept behind a sour mash, for you Jim Beam/Jack Daniels fans. 

La Roja is an amber ale which uses this ideology and barrel aging to give it a distinct flavor. Spoiler alert, we don’t think it worked. The nose is the first encouraging part. The nose contains a decent number of fruity flavors like strawberry daquiri, grape, sweet red wine, pear, floral notes, acidity, lemon, light pine, tangerine, nutmeg and even some subtle raison. We were content with this, and it foreshadowed to a good complex beer. Here ends the encouraging part. 

The arrival contained very concentrated fruit flavors of red grape juice, cranberry, grapefruit, slight oak, and some acidity. We are getting more hardcore with the cran/grape juice as we push into the flavor, with no sign of bitterness, but rather citrus notes like tart lemon and grapefruit. There is a SLIGHT hint of grain here, but you probably won’t notice it unless you’re looking for it. The finish....is the same. There is an addition of slight yeast is all. Okay. So this beer doesn’t taste like beer, and doesn’t taste like there is alcohol in it. If you handed this to a five year old, they probably wouldn’t know you replaced their Juicy Juice. This would be okay if we felt there was a greater complexity to it, but it wasn’t found in this bottle. Jolly Pumpkin may have some great beers, and we have experienced them, but KCM doesn’t recommend this one. 

Score: 5.0/10