
Jolly Pumpkin Maracaibo Especial
Jolly Pumpkin Maracaibo Especial is called a Special Brown Ale on the bottle, but every reference source I look at has this listed as a different style. I’m not sure what I’m drinking here. Sour? Brown? Belgain Dark of some kind? The beer itself is Batch 951, Bottled 1-17-2012. It is brewed with cacao, cinnamon and orange peel and of course aged in oak. I found this year + old bottle on sale at Total Wine and figured it was worth a shot. Maybe not the best candidate for aging at 7.5% ABV, but then again most everything Jolly Pumpkin does seems age-able. It starts very sour, not sure if that is intentional or not. Lots of orange peel and some almost generic spices, although I do feel like I am getting a little of the cinnamon they specifically mention on the bottle. The dry cacao comes out on the finish as well. This turned out to be an interesting beer, and worth the risk at a discounted price. I hope to try a fresher bottle someday to compare this to, I am curious to see if the sourness is intentional or a by product of age.