While I was in Detroit for the Woodward Dream Cruise(huge classic car show) I ran out to Dexter, MI to visit Jolly Pumpkin brewery. I was suprised at how non-descript the building was(see pic), I thought, "That couldn't be it?" Anyway, I was really excited b/c I love sour beers, and all( if not most all) of their beers are oak aged and use wild yeast. However, their flanders red was the only significantly sour beer they had, and it was not that sour. I wasn't expecting the vinegary sourness of a Oude Kriek lambic, but give me something! This really disappointed me, and I'm sure affected how I felt about the rest of their beers. I was really hoping/expecting to love all their beers, this was not the case unfortunately. I really appreciate what they're doing at this brewery, its very interesting and 'up my alley' but the beer is just not that exciting. Their Reserve Flanders which is unblended 1+ year old barrel aged was really uninspiring, it was not carbed( I got the impression this was not intentional) and had white stuff floating in it I can only assume, based on my own similar experience, was wild yeast still growing in the bottle. The problem, again I think I have experienced something similar, is that their totally unregulated wild yeast can give undesireable characteristics as well as good, in this case I think they ate too much and killed/ate the flavor leaving no sourness or much else behind except a burnt bourbon taste from the barrel it was aged in. I did want to support them and bought a couple of all their beers to try again and share with my homebrew club. I will post reviews of each below in a few weeks.
Visit to Jolly Pumpkin Brewery
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