Jolly Pumpkin Baudelaire Beer iO Saison

Brewed by Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales
Style: Saison
Dexter, Michigan USA

Serve in Tulip

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Here is the story; I left my house last night, going to the hospital with my wife. 4½ hours later I return with my new born son Melvin, a perfect little boy. Sitting in my couch at 1 am looking at him I need something to celebrate and find my newly arrived EYO from JP in the fridge. It might be the situation or it might just be the beer, but this is the most perfectly balanced beer I can remember having since.....well since Orval maybe. Fruit, funk, drinkability is just perfect. It makes me think, this is the kind of beer thats the reason I’m in the beer business, the reason I started drinking craft beers to begin with. Thanks a lot JP and cheers to my new son Melvin! I will take you to Dexter when you are old enough so that you can experience maybe the greatest brewery in the world for yourself!

UPDATED: APR 21, 2010 Don’t know where to start. Been blown away by this beer since the first sip. !st batch had a pinkish red tint to it, this has more of reddish amber, tiny carbonation bubbles, nice head, decent lacing. Aroma is an amazing floral and fruit combo I can’t quite explain. Cherry tartness, floral character is unreal, fresh roses and orange blossoms. Hints of oak. Flavor again, the perfect balance of fruit/funk/floral/tartness, slight sourness. Finishes dry, but lingers just enough, that you beg for more. Maybe it’s just perfect for it’s time or season.

UPDATED: MAR 24, 2010 750mL Bottle. Thanks Sean! I’ve been fortunate to try this beer twice now and have loved it both times. For starters, I love hibiscus flowers, so when the nose opens with a perfumed breath of that fragrance mingled with the delightful JP-style Brett, I’m taken. The color adds hue to the brew, with a furious clear clean red and a super-lacey off-white head laid on top. The flavors are punctual and ordered. Green peppercorn, sweet hibiscus, lemon, honey, and banana. A touch of cotton and an edge of birch leaf. The palate is beautifully dry, but runs with solid sweetness through the middle of the palate and ends on an airy cottonwood like dryness. This beer, somehow, reminds me of hot August afternoons on the eastern plains of Colorado, or warm, fall Georgia mornings on the piedmont. It’s got a breath of life to it, for sure.

Rating #1200! 750 mL bottle (Blend 5, bottled 1-26-2011) poured into my Odonata Saison glass. Pours a deep, glowing, strawberry-copper color with a pinkish-tan head; like raspberry cake frosting spread atop a hunk of petrified amber. Nice rocky formation, fabulous retention and clingy lacing. The aroma displays some breathtaking clarity and focus; the rose petals and hibiscus are plain as day but distinct and unmuddled. A grassy note, some earthiness and some Orval-ish brett lie underneath. I may as well be walking through a garden. The perfection of the aroma is refreshing and inspiring, and I hope the flavor lives up to it. First sip and... wow, it does. An initial hibiscus and unripe strawberry tartness washes into a divine brett finish that recalls Orval in the best way possible. More on the tartness: it reminds me a bit of that Minute Made frozen raspberry lemonade from concentrate that you have to mix with 4 parts water. As a kid, I always mixed it with 3 parts because I wanted it stronger and more tart, and this beer has an element of that flavor, fleetingly. More on the finish: bone dry with a grass/hay brett character and some mild bitterness. At this point, halfway through the first pour, the head looks like a glob of melted vanilla ice cream in an ice cream float. Creamy, firm and fine carbonation, lower in effervescence than Orval (not a bad thing). The palate is soft and pleasant, the swallow leaves a light residual acidity that, together with the arid dryness, begs the next sip. I cant fault this beer in any facet. Its been a long time since I was blown away by a beer, but this beer has snapped me out of complacency. I really hope JP expands the Baudelaire line, because Ale Absurd was great and IO is flat-out incredible.

Bottled 750ml. Ordered from www.erzbiershop.ch. It pours a beautiful nut brown beer with a nicely remaining, perhaps faintly pink lightly tanned head. Brett, rose hips, rose petals and hibiscus in the nose which is extremely inviting. Fantastic lacework. A lot of brett in the taste which is out this world- Heaven on earth! I am not bothering to write anything more about this beer which is a fantastic divine revelation.

Bottle: The aroma is outstanding and consists of brett, lemon, floral notes, sour apple, oak, melon, and just a hint of mustiness. It pours a transparent reddish-orange with a moderate creamy off-white head with great retention and lacing that just clings to the glass...a very impressive looking beer. The flavor starts with melon and light floral notes. The finish has light tartness with lemon, brett, sweet tarts, sour apple, and a touch of oak. It’s medium bodied with lively soft carbonation. I could literally drink this all day. The best beer I’ve had from Jolly Pumpkin.

very extrange beer but very nice!!! Aroma and taste with notes of rose and hibiscu. Is a special and unique beer.

750 ml bottle bought @ Ølbutikken. Pours hazy goldenish red with a huge fluffy and frothy offwhite head that slowly dissipates while leaving lots of trace on the glass. Smell is tiny sweet, floral, fruity and spicy with perfume-like flowers, moist grass, white pepper, crackers, peaches, mango, moist soil, biscuits, old dry wood, dusty attic, butterscotch, roses, white pepper, passion fruit, lilacs, jasmine and lemon zest. The smell brings you into a moist and dew covered tropical garden during a warm summer night. Taste is tiny bitter, slightly sour, floral, fruity and spicy with crackers, lemon zest, white pepper, moist grass, lilacs, moist soil, rose water, ripe plums, passion fruit, lychee, mandarin oranges, allspice, dry wood, green grapes and hints of hibiscus. Mouthfeel is smooth, dry, tart and medium bodied. Finish is tiny sour, dry and spicy with crackers, moist soil, white pepper, moist soil, green grapes, rose water and moist grass. This beer brings you into a fantasy garden landscape that you never want to leave. Amazing stuff and easily one of the best beers I’ve ever tried. Complex, thirst quenching and very drinkable!

One of the best beers I’ve had in some time. The pour is gorgeous with a nice deep golden color covered by an off-white head. The aroma is full of bright floral notes, mixed with just the right amount of lemon grass scents. The body is full, and I absolutely love the carbonation level in this brew. The taste is so complex and refreshing. Just a bit of sweetness up front, but that quickly gives way to a wonderful array of floral character, lemon, and a very light yeast/bread taste. I wish I had bottles of this to drink every day. Amazing!

Deep red to amber colour with a small, but lasting white head. Amazingly complex aroma with peppercorns (black, white and pink), pineapple, orange peel and other fruit, wood character and roses. Dry and slightly tart complex flavour with exotic fruits and lots of white pepper. A delightful little saison? More like a delightful giant among saisons, especially among the American brewed ones...