I haven’t formally reviewed anything from Michigan-based Jolly Pumpkin before, which is unfortunate I suppose, as my first one out of the gate isn’t frankly that indicative of a couple other pretty solid offerings I’ve had from them, including Oro de Calabaza (a biere de garde) and La Roja (a wild ale).
I picked this one up at Casanova’s in Hudson. And according to Beer Advocate, Noel de Calabaza is categorized as a Belgian strong dark, which I just don’t get. Like many styles, there’s often a fairly wide degree of latitude in characteristics of aroma and flavor. But when it comes to Belgian strong darks, the general theme across similar stylistic offerings like Chimay Blue, Dogfish Head Raison D’Etre and Unibroue Maudite is a rich malt foundation of caramel, bread and toast accented by a spicy, dark fruit aroma.
With Jolly Pumpkin’s Christmas seasonal, however, you have to strain to pick up even a hint of these qualities. Instead, whatever malt complexity might actually be there is overshadowed by the two main things this beer does have going on…loads of barnyard funk and an acidic tart flavor, not exactly what I’d call your prototypical Belgian strong dark.
So putting the stylistic shackles aside, was the beer flavorful on its own merits?
They bottle condition the beer, and this one was a bit of a gusher, all kinds of carbonation spewing out of the bottle as I just barely got my glass in place to catch the pour. Color was nice, a deep mahogany with a meringue-like cloud of dense bubbles topping the glass. Brett, brett and more brett in the nose, which I’m a big fan of, laced with an acidic quality. Not much of the dark fruit or sweet candi sugar I’d expect.
The beer has a fleeting sweetness up front in the taste, which quickly transitions to a potent, dominating lactic sourness. As much as I’ve been getting into sours lately, this one wasn’t really working for me, with not enough nuance or layers of additional flavor there to complement the one-dimensional tartness. Despite the overabundance of carbonation in the initial pour, mouthfeel was surprisingly thin, almost as if the acid took over and cut the texture.
I really wanted to like this beer. But a lack of malt depth and vinegar-like flavoring make it a tough one for me to recommend.
Rating: C+
December 23, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Hmm interesting read. I drank this one last night and I kind of liked it. What I have found with all Jolly pumpkin beers is that it has to be cold, cold, cold when you open it or it’s a gusher. Once opened and poured into 2-3 glasses, you must let it warm up around 55-60 degrees before you get any flavor out of it besides what you described. Yeah a ton of work, but I have found that it makes the flavors in the beer come out.
As for mine last night, once it warmed up I got a ton of flavor of dark fruit, figs, raisins etc and of course the tartness with the pungent horse blanket in the nose. Its not the best offering from JP but not bad either.
December 23, 2009 at 9:05 pm
I say “hmmm” as well. I had a bottle of this last year from batch #333/334. I loved it. Having said this about it:
“This beer is like a rum-soaked, plumy bread pudding. The bread crust malt and burnt sugar flavors form the perfect accompaniment to that amazing fruitiness. And it’s all set off by the slightest touch of the characteristic Jolly Pumpkin funk. An endlessly complex beer.”
But Jolly Pumpkin beers can vary wildly from batch to batch.
December 23, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Interesting you got a ton of dark fruit, Nick, as I got about zero. The tart flavor was too overpowering for me. There were some decent things going on (like the brett) but overall it fell flat for me on the malt side of things.
December 23, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Interesting, Michael. I feel like I’m having another Duchesse de Bourgogne experience here, as I struggled with the tart/acidic aspect of that beer even though others thought it was relatively sweet.
December 23, 2009 at 9:15 pm
And my bottle is from Blend 4, 2009. If anyone else has tried that version.
December 23, 2009 at 9:18 pm
My bottle is batch number 331, which I would assume is older than yours. JP no longer keeps up with batch number on their website, so no way of knowing. The way it ages, could be effecting everyones opinion.
March 20, 2010 at 4:14 pm
To me pretty much all of the Jolly Pumpkin beers taste the same so I won’t be spending $13 or so a bottle on them anymore. That being said….I picked up a bottle of the 2008 xmas brew and it was very tasty. The year of aging definitely made a difference.