Jolly Pumpkin E.S. Bam

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Sampled from bottle at McNellies. Pours cloudy orange with a thick creamy head. Lots o tropical fruit and a bit of horse blanket in the aroma and flavor. Love the funk. Effervescent with a dry, slightly bitter finish. Love it.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Kind of a nice hybrid of a saison, a hoppy bitter brew, and a trademark jolly pumpkin wild/sour ale. I liked the interplay between these aspects and this turned out to be a nice complex but refreshing summer brew.

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Bottled (from K Supermarket Kamppi, Helsinki). Deep amber colour, big foamy off-white head, that leaves rich lace. Aroma is some yeast, strong fruity and flowery hops along with some notes of freshly cut wood. Flavour is big grassy and flowery hops along with some sweetish malts. Big bitter grassy finish along with some soapy notes. Quite brutal bitter.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

It pours a hazy and sedimental dull-brown with thick and amazing light-tan head ... wow! it has settled into a mesa-like hill. It looks like a root-beer float with copious lace. A spicy and mesmerizing aroma of caramel malts, hops, grasses, limes, some mint, and mild spices. The mouthfeel is smooth, silky, and rich. Flavors of caramel malts, hops, grass, limes, tea leaves, and spices. Wow!!

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

another brew from jolly gord . excellent ... uplifting aromas emanate .. tingly and funny farm-house .. . bold and bitter, assertive.. delightful! good dog: word of advice.. if he grabs on to ya leg, best just to left finish...

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

This pours a dark amber color with a huge foamy head. Lively carbonation. The aroma is rather fragrant with fruits, yeast, and a little malt. Fruity flavors, sweet, but also sour and tart. Light dry hopping creates a numbing feel. I do like the fact that this is light and refereshing. Good beer but as the case with some other JP brews I'm left wanting a little more, perhaps due to the price tag.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Bottle: Poured a medium brown color ale with a huge foamy head with good retention and good lacing. Aroma consists of tart and sour notes with some grainy malt. Taste is also a weird mix between some grainy malt with some tart and sour notes and an astringent final. Not as balanced as the Weizen Bam that I tasted a couple of days before.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 3 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 4

Bottle at tasting at Chris Fischer’s (from Liars Club) house. Pours with a reddish-brown body topped by a medium thick head with a good amount of lacing. It’s slightly sour and grassy from the hops with a touch of swetness. The aroma is similar to my dogs shit. Light bodied and crisp.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

750 ml bottle, batch 278. Pours a murky golden brown with a lively, rocky white head that retains well and laces the glass.

The aroma is yeast funk, spices, pepper, wood and some slightly tart fruits.

The flavor is yeast, some tart fruits, with some grassy bitter hops and some almost cola flavors at the finish. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with very lively sharp carbonation that becomes velvety as it sits.

Overall, a nice solid session beer

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

Batch 267, 268 (a blend I guess); Sampled April 2008
Definitely on the hoppy side, as I pour this beer an aroma of earthy, berry-like hop character wafts to my nose. The beer is extremely well carbonated as a careful pour into my large Tripel Karmeliet tulip produces a five finger thick crown of cream colored froth that is a half finger above the rim of my glass. The head actually forms a very interesting, lofted mesa of foam as it slowly recedes all the while leaving lots of fragile lace on the sides of my glass. The beer is a dark plum color, but shows a chill hazed (it was brilliantly clear when I put it into the beer-fridge yesterday), bright cherry color when held up to the light. A deeper inspection of the aroma yields a very earthy nose that is more from funk & fermentation character than from the hops. Aromatic notes of black pepper, loam, savory, slight sage, some thyme, fresh cut hay. Also a soft underlying fruitiness contributes aromas of plum, orange zest, bright-berry hop notes, . The spiciness contributes a very savory, rich aroma that is quite appetizing. Interestingly enough the hop character, while very noticeable as I poured this brew, plays a secondary role here in the aroma, at times it can even be overpowered by the fermentation character, but it is quite persistent and refuses to play anything but a significant role here in the nose.

Very light feeling, with almost no body to it at all. As this suggests this beer is quite dry with no perceived sweetness. This has a savory, rich earthiness to it just like the aroma suggested, but there is also a herbal component; flavors of earthy coriander, sage, thyme, some green tobacco in the finish and a grassiness. The hops provide a nice, biting bitterness that is found throughout the flavor profile, it almost doesn't seem as noticeable as it should be, because of all the other complex flavor avenues that one feels the need to explore. The mouthfeel of this beer has a certain tannic quality to it that helps to boost the very light body into something with just a touch of texture. The bright berry-like hop character of the nose is much muted in the flavor, which is not surprising given how dry this beer is; a slight note of orange peel comes through, with perhaps just a hint of black currant flavor as well. There is a presence here of caramelized malt (just not sweet) as well as some dry, biscuit-like notes and a whole-grain breadiness.

For my second pour I did not spend an extended period smelling the beer and so the beer almost explodes as it first hits my mouth; an excessive, rustic carbonation turns this beer to a froth, luckily a quick swirl reduces this to merely a well carbonated beer. The second pour is a bit more chunky, which doesn't effect the flavor much, but does add some rustic yeast-aromatics to the nose. This is a very quaffable brew, I am having no problem finishing this 750ml bottle.

The appearance of this beer is just a perfect example of a Farmhouse Ale; an epic head, appetizing color and even a rustic light haziness, you really can't ask for more in this type of beer. This is a fantastic beer, though it falls just short of the greatness that is regular Bam Bier. I really do like how savory this beer is though, this really helps to offset the light body of this brew, which is darn near water in heft.