Farmhouse Friday: Jolly Pumpkin Tasting

Tags

Bam Biere, Bam Noire, Calabaza Blanca, jolly pumpkin, La Parcela, La Roja, Oro de Calabaza

Some friends and I got together recently and tried six different beers from Michigan’s Jolly Pumpkin, and while not all of them are considered “farmhouse” beers, even those that aren’t in one of the farmhouse styles share many characteristics.

We drank:

• Calabaza Blanca
• Oro de Calabaza
• Bam Biere
• Bam Noire
• La Roja
• La Parcela

I had had most of these previously, although never together and never really comparing them with each other to see how the different styles at Jolly Pumpkin differ from each other while still have that Jolly Pumpkin aspect to them. It’s hard to describe what that characteristic taste is, maybe a ‘light funkiness’, not quite sour, due in part to their oak aging and open fermentation.

Calabaza Blanca, is a white ale brewed with orange peel and corriander, it’s both more tart and dry finishing than many Belgian-style Wit’s, but pretty similar. There was quite a bit of citrus and it was pretty refreshing, good for a hot summer’s day,  but probably my least favorite.

Oro de Calabaza was the strongest beer of the bunch at 8% ABV and it was obvious upon smelling the beer, a distinct boozy aroma came off of it. This was by far the least funky and most hoppy  beer of the six we tried. While I enjoyed it enough, I don’t think I would want a full glass of it, the five or so ounces I got of it was fine.

Bam Biere is an old favorite of mine, but I like it much more with a little bit of age on it, although I’m not sure how fresh this bottles was (they use batch numbers instead of dates on bottles of Bam Biere) it wasn’t as tart as I like it. But there’s plenty of green apple and pear flavors, it’s pretty sweet but finishes dry and is mighty refreshing.

Bam Noire is a bit decieving, it’s dark and looks heavy, but was actually the lowest ABV beer out of the six we tasted at 4.3%. It has a bit of caramel or toffee sweetness, smells a bit of coffee and some plum-like flavors. It’s a bit tart and funky but not too much, if I had to guess I’d wager this was also a fairly fresh bottle.

La Roja with a bit of age on it is probably my favorite of Jolly Pumpkin’s year round beers. This bottle was a year old and it was a bit sour, although it would probably get better with more time. Plenty of wood, some cherry like tart fruity sweetness and some cooking spices I couldn’t nail down.

La Parcella is Jolly Pumpkin’s pumpkin beer but as with most pumpkin beers if I hadn’t have known I would have had no clue there was actual pumpkin in it. It’s such a delicate flavor that really doesn’t stand out. Often pumpkin beers are more like ‘pumpkin pie’ beers. This one wasn’t sweet or overly spiced, it was actually pretty acidic for a pumpkin beer which threw my expectations off a bit. Not a bad beer, but hard to tell it’s a pumpkin beer.

Blind Lady Ale House Second Anniversary Weekend

Tags

automatic brewing co imperial coffee brown ale, Bam Biere, Bam Noire, BLAH, blind lady ale house 2nd anniversary, blind lady ale house anniversary, blind lady ale house koozie's, Blind Pig, Consecration, craft beer cans, craft beer koozie, Damnation, DRAFT magazine top 100 beer bars in america, Hanger 24 Alt, Hanger 24 Brewery, hanger 24 orange wit, jolly pumpkin artisan ales, La Parcela- Pumpkin Ale, Maracaibo Especial Oro de Calabaza, Noel de Calabaza, redemption, russian river ipa, Temptation

It’s hard to believe that Blind Lady Ale House is only two years old. They recently got named one of the top 100 beer bars in America by DRAFT Magazine for the second year in a row (in San Diego O’Brien’s Pub and Hamilton’s Tavern also made the list) making the list every year they’ve been open. This weekend they’re celebrating their anniversary with plenty of great beer.

They’ll start things off Wednesday night by putting their 2nd Anniversary T-shirts (with the tandem bicycle rider design) on sale and pouring flights from Russian River Brewing Co. They’ll have Temptation, Consecration, Redemption, Damnation, Blind Pig and Russian River IPA.

Thursday BLAH will have commemorative Blind Lady Ale House/Hanger 24 glasses for the first 155 people (over 21) through the door. They’ll get $2 fills of Hanger 24 Alt and Orange Wit for those with glasses until the kegs run dry. They’ll also have some Hanger 24 flights throughout the night.

Friday they’ll open for lunch with special 2nd Anniversary glasses for the first 155 people (again, only those over 21 will get glasses). Friday night they’ll probably have something else going on, but haven’t announced it yet.

Saturday the folks from Hanger 24 will be coming down to hang out at BLAH and they’ll have a special H24 cask. Later, at 3pm, they’ll have BLAH 2nd Anniversary koozie’s for the first 200 people to order craft beer in a can. They’ll have cans from Avery Brewing Co, Maui Brewing Co, Oskar Blues Brewery and possibly more.

Sunday will be the release of Automatic Brewing Co.’s latest beer an Imperial Coffee Brown Ale. I got a chance to taste this beer last week and it’s good. The coffee is apparent, yet restrained. The 8.3% ABV is hard to believe as this drinks smooth. They’ll have fifty 1 liter growler’s available which can be pre-purchased at Brown Paper Tickets and must be picked up between 11:30am and 12:30pm Sunday. There’s a good chance these will sell out, so get on it if you’re interested. They’ll also be live screen printing t-shirts as well. Later that afternoon at 3pm they’ll put on some beers from Jolly Pumpkin for a tasting flight, Bam Biere,  Bam Noire, La Parcela- Pumpkin Ale, Maracaibo Especial Oro de Calabaza, and Noel de Calabaza.

Check out the BLAH website for all the details and their Facebook page for additional info.

Big thanks to @RedTheTrucker on Twitter for tipping me off that the Automatic growler pre-sale was posted this afternoon.