The side of the bottle of Bam Biere, Jolly Pumpkin’s Farmhouse Ale, tells the story of a dog who got hit by a car and bounced right back. To me, this brew is a lot like that. I was lucky enough to grab a few bottles of this earlier in the year when they were on shelves around NYC, and when I walked into a local beer distributor the other day and there were 5 of these on the shelf in the six pack holder, one missing, I had to go for it. What would this beer be like several months later? Would sitting on a dusty shelf in a non-temperature controlled room for almost a year, the beer equivalent of getting hit by a car, ruin the beer? Or would it make it better? More inscrutable? More complex?
Belgian Saison or Farmhouse Ale is one of my favorite styles of beer and American breweries can have a wide range of success with it. Sometimes, in an attempt to make it very traditional, they end up producing something bland. Sometimes, in an attempt to make their mark on it, they completely blow the style up. Jolly Pumpkin, as usual, nails the style by providing a great base Saison and adding a disorderly amount of yeast and funk on top that is really undeniable if you have a taste for “infected” beers. The first of these 5 bottles I opened smelled so strongly of barnyard/horse manure that I almost couldn’t believe it. I’ve had 3 so far and they all have a varying amount of this over the top nose, which when you pour the beer out and let it sit a bit really mellows. Bam Biere pours a beautiful reddish gold color and the head is chunky, foamy, and leaves all kinds of crazy sediment on the side of the glass. The beer is smooth, crisp, and dry, with all kinds of awesome flavors coming through as it warms up. It’s a bit thin, which is fine, because any heavier and it would really lose some of its drinkability. For me, this is a very drinkable, truly great American take on a Belgian style, which if you have read this blog at all you know really gets me going. So yes, hit this beer with a car as many times as you want, because it’s only going to get better.
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