Jolly Pumpkin Fuego del Otono (Autumn Fire)

High carbonation, great funky aroma. The flavor and aroma are much the same as the other Jolly Pumpkins. Good beer, low malt.

Sample at Barley Island tasting Jan 20, 2007 - Bought at brewery Dec 2006 - Aroma is sour, nuts and berries with a caramel yeasty finish. Pours clear brown with a small head and no lacing. Flavor matches aroma. Palate is thin and tart. Different and tasty, but not as good as I was expecting.

Added one to flavor and one to overall. Upon a revisit it has a nice gentle spice and good yeasty back that makes all JP brews so tasty.

Lively pour yields a shadowy orange body with a large beige head; as per the usual with beers from J.P. it is steadfast and rocky. Lacing is thick and three dimensional. Aroma is butternut bread, vanilla, cinnamon, nectarine, musty yeast, oak barrel (less than usual, I think the spices keep it in check), sour cherries and blackberries, brown sugar and a nuttiness I must assume is chestnut. So much aromatic interplay and complexity here. Once again I’ve encountered a phenomenal amount of easily identifiable, unique aromas in a Jolly Pumpkin beer. This bouquet does exactly what I think it was intended to do - invoke a feeling of Autumn and the peacefulness that it can bring when enjoying the lovely color and temperature changes in the climate that it is produced in. Well done. The flavor is quite tart, moreso than I’d expected after many energetic whiffs. More tastes of fruit, brown sugar and bready malts. The cinnamon and other spices are profound in their subjugation of my tastebuds. Intense doesn’t begin to describe it. I preferred the aroma to the taste due to the intensity, perhaps I should’ve let it rest a while longer. Palate is medium to full but without balance. Soft mouthfeel. Finishes with a heady amount of oaken barrel and spiciness. A really interesting and individual beverage, with some characteristics I had only previously associated with exotic teas. Intriguing, enigmatic. At times I felt overwhelmed by such bold flavor. Then I realized it is just a challenging beer, so I must take more jabs at it. Ron, you rule.

Pours a hazy amber or light copper color with a thick lacy tan head. Smells of light sourness and grapes, oranges, and other citrus fruits. Tastes of sour citrus with hints of cinnamon and other spices. A little bitterness on the bck of the tongue, but very full bodied as a whole with a nice smooth finish. Very nice brew.

Pours a hazy copper/orange color with a frothy two finger head that settles very slowly to a thick cap that sticks around for the entire beer. The lacing that’s left behind is thick, and covers most of the inside of my glass. Smell; there are some definite tart and sour aromas present. Once you get past those a little fruitiness comes out with apples, lemons and hints of oranges. It’s a bit on the funky side with some interesting barnyard aromas, with some cinnamon and other spices mixed in with an oak barrel presence in there as well. Taste; it’s definitely on the tart side, but it’s in no way overwhelming. Caramel and cinnamon blend well with the apple flavors, with an interesting lemon twist mixed on with them. The barnyard funk and oak barrel flavors round out the beer very nicely. I wasn’t sure the flavor would live up to the smell, but it definitely has, with all of the flavors smoothly flowing into the next. Mouthfeel is on the full side with a lively but smooth carbonation. The only real problem I have with this beer, is that I only had one of them.

KSBF 06. Not sure if this was an 05 or an 06 but it was pretty funky so Id guess the 05? Pours a cloudy yeasty bright orange/light amber with a great fluffy head and nice retention and lace. Aroma is slightly sour and lemony with lots of funky brett, horseblanket, mildewy and musty and lots of phenolicy spiciness. Tart sour cherry and farnhouse funk flavor, leathery, spicy, cloves, woody, oaky, some vanilla. More tartenss and sour in the end with pediococcus or sharp brett cherry pie like flavors. A bit astringency along with the tartness- almond-like or cherry pit harshness with a dry finish. THis was really cool and funky. Great stuff.

750 from Beer World of Largo. <P> The body is a murkey orange/brown with a large (two and a half fingers thick) off white head that is craggy and lasting. Aroma is sharp, slightly herbal, lightly sour and musty. <P> Fore is soft and smooth with a cuddly kind of acidity. It’s lightly nutty, dry, musty-yeasty and slightly sour. Not nearly as good as I built it up in my head. I guess you run that risk with beers like Ron makes. This is a little too low key overall for my tastes. It’s soft and sippable, but I find myself wanting more flavor concentration and wondering if it really has any spice in it.

Orange, with a huge dense rocky head. Nutty, herbal, even slightly medicinal aroma. Flavor is clean, grassy, with some barnyard and musty notes. Some sharp bitterness, and some nutty, savory notes. Nice hints of pine and oak as it warms. Thanks to Silphium for the trade!