brew dog blog

Didn’t really mean for “Infected Sessions” to turn into a “series” like “Life is Beautiful” has, but, well, there ya go — not much else is planned around here anyway. Jolly Pumpkin is one of my favorite American Breweries and they have all the characters that a classic, high quality micro-brewery should posess, including a healthy dose of outsider/weird sensibility and a diminished sense of risk avoidance.  Calabaza Blanca is a Belgian by way of Dexter, Michigan style Witbier, which is spiced in the traditional sense with orange peel and corriander, and is also oak aged and bottle conditioned.  Jolly pumpkin pretty dependably offers a weird and infected take on a classic style, and this is no exception — the usual spice and funk of a Witbier, which is found in the background and almost entirely caused by yeast and lack of filtration, is all the way up front on this beer, a massive nose full of sour and puckering farm stink procedes any sips you take.  Which of course is a good thing.

So yeah, this is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, a sour Witbier, but one that is very nicely balanced, very dry, and very Champagne like.  This is not an easy thing to pull off and once again Jolly Pumpking doesn’t disappoint.  They manage to create a drinkable, even sessionable beer here with a less than 5% ABV and a truly refreshing finish.  Another Infected Session beer that you would be super stoked to have a six pack of at a barbecue or for a hang out day in the yard.  Glad to have grabbed a six pack of this at State Line Liquors on the way back from a trip down to Maryalnd, which by the way, lives up to its reputation for having great craft beers in what is quickly becoming an exciting part of the world for beer in general.