Jolly Pumpkin La Roja

Cloudy reddish-orange with brown creamy head leaving patches of lace. Sour cherry, plum, bit of funk and SweetTarty notes. Nice. Sweet and sour flavors playing on the palate, dusty cherry, SweetTarts and slight acidic twang. Pretty drinkable while still being interesting.

Bottle. Pours a beautiful hazy red with a thick cream colored head. Great twangy sour malt and fruity(green apple) aroma. I did not have the highest expectations for this beer as there have only been 2 U.S. brewed Belgian sours (Russian River Sanctification and New Belgium La Folie) that I have thought rivaled the Belgians (Rodenbach). This is no exception. It has elements of a great beer, tartness, fruitiness, and spice. But, there is a sharpness to the flavor that I cannot get past. Maybe this is a problem bottle, and maybe I will try again to be fair, but this one leaves a lot to be desired.......As this beer warmed, it smoothed slightly, making it more enjoyable, but still not great. The sour tartness improved with temperature, but the sharpness still exists, just to a very slightly lesser extent. It is very close to being an Excellent beer in my opinion.

750 bottle: Pours amber with a very large head. Very tart flavor (not really sour). Slight fruity flavor. Very good.

750 bottle poured into a snifter has a semi transparent chestnut color with good active carbination and an initially thick white head that slowly faded back to a lace like layer on the surface. aroma has such a pleasant funky sour, apple, cherry, banana, and yeast. many nice silky layers of smell. mouth feel is a silky heavy carbonated cider. flavors just come at you with sour cherry, champagne yeast, sweet spice, and over ripe fruit galore. very dry but it sets up the taste buds for the sour assault. flavors of fruit combined with the wood switch the flavor about as it was drank. my first jolly pumpkin tried, i will be back for more.

Sour cherry and grape aroma. The pour was a deep amber with a tan head. Flavors of sour fruit, slight sweetness at the start that faded at swallow. Over time the bitterness increased. Fruit flavors of pear, slight banana, cherry.

Bottle- I thought I already rated this, because I had this so many times, and then I realized I did not enter my ratings, and my notes are not here, so now I open my only bottle. Obtained this 2 years ago in Michigan. Pours just a slight hazed amber with a thin beige cap. Nose of fruit (apple, plums, cherries) and lots of yeast with floral spices and some rye bread with a bit of booze. Flavour profile is full of cherries and yeast with good rose petal floral hopiness. Wood and bretty funk as well. I love the finish of these beers. Quite yeasty and funky, but refreshing and always leading me to want more.

Pours amber with minimal head - and smells like apple cider. Strong apple flavors in this beer. First taste, it tastes more like a Chardonnay than a beer. A little hard to get used to, as this is my first sour ale. Strangely refreshing, however. SECOND ANALYSIS: I love this beer! Now that I’ve made room for some sours in my tasteocracy - this beer is amazing. Perfect "starter" sour. Full of nice oak flavors, slight brett flavor and sour, but not overly so.

750 ml bottle. Pours a clear amber with a medium sized foamy beige head. Aroma of rotting wood, basement funk, cherries and other dark fruit. Taste is pleasantly sour with a wet oak presence and hints of cherry and sour apple.