Jolly Pumpkin La Roja

What a wonderful beer. Poured a beautiful deep amber color with with a huge white head. Hoppy, funky aromas, a bit our sourness that follows into the flavor. Very dry and crisp. Reminded me a lot of Orval, and that is a good thing. Complex flavor, cherries, figs, sweet malts and a lingering funk finish. This beer was great. Jolly Pumpkin is quickly becoming one of my favorite breweries.

Bottle. Pours slightly hazy ruby orange, off white head. Aroma is funky, musty, tangy, sour, bleu cheese, caramel, pine, oak. Flavor is the same but with emphasis on a soft and subtle caramel/cheese blend. Slight sweetness that drifts off the tongue. Nice, interesting blend and I usually do not like brews aged in oak barrels.

Rating #2200. Dark, murky red color with just a perfect finger-width head that does not seem to be going away. Slightly soured and tart cherry aroma. Very nice tart cherry taste right off the bat. This evolves into a good sourness with oak, vanilla and caramel. A little barnyard-like at the end that makes it a definite cousin of a farmhouse ale. This is mighty nice.

750 ml bottle. Pours a hazy amber brown with a huge creamy off white head that diminishes slowly and leaves some lacing.

The aroma is sour tart cherries and sweet-tarts with a little fragrant woodiness and musty yeast.

The flavor is some tart and sour fruits that is more reserved than what I was expecting from the aroma. It has a good caramel malt backbone to it with some woody notes and some nice earthy yeast. It has a surprisingly dry finish that is lightly hopped and musty. The alcohol is very well hidden - this tastes like a nice session beer. The mouthfeel is medium with sharp bubbly champagne-like carbonation.

Overall, a very nice, easy-drinking, semi-sour ale. It’s more reserved in the sourness with some nice complex mixes of Belgian yeast, light hops and sweet and sour notes. The more I drank of this, the more I appreciated it.

The oak taste seems to be more than what the sour notes need to survive. Bottle purchased from Capone’s

Bottle. Cloudy amber colour with a weak head. Aroma of acid, little sour and oak. Flavour of malt, vegstables, yeast and oakness, ends up quite dry.

Bottle, Pours hazy brown, with a massive head. Bit of an off aroma. Man, is this beer sour. If they’d packaged it as a sour ale, I’d have given it a much better rating. One sip and I almost spit is out. Another sip and I was sure it had gone bad. Now that I see it was a Flemish sour (a style I tend to avoid), I know what’s up. So, I’m rating this as an amber ale, as packaged. Medium body, with a sour grape/cherry flavor. Mercifully, it finishes quickly.

Jolly Pumpkin La Roja 750 ml bottle Moderate pour in a goblet Recent brewing, carved into 05/07 Poured a clear amber with a large mostly lasting off-white head with good lacing and some brown fun yeasty gunk at the botttom. Smelt of strong sour brett, like dry cider or dry white grape juice, with light roasted malt. Flavor was upfront strong sour apple or white grape, moderate dark bread and light bitter grassy hops followed by moderate sourness and moderate oak dry bitterness on a fair length finish. Palate was light to medium bodied, softly carbonated, slightly oily on a dry finish and moderately puckering. Overall, this is a great American sour ale. I love the clean crisp oak taste at the end.