Calabaza Boreal
Anchorage Brewing Company
- From:
- Anchorage Brewing Company
- Alaska, United States
- Style:
- Belgian Saison
Ranked #112 - ABV:
- 7%
- Score:
- 93
Ranked #4,988 - Avg:
- 4.16 | pDev: 7.21%
- Ratings:
- | reviews: 65
- Status:
- Active
- Rated:
- Feb 11, 2026
- Added:
- Jun 07, 2014
- Wants:
- 30
- Gots:
- 68
SCORE
93
Outstanding
93
Outstanding
Ale fermented in oak tanks with fresh grapefruit peel, peppercorns, and fresh grapefruit juice.
Saison brewed with Mosaic and Galaxy hops. Fermented and aged in Foudres with Saison yeast, Brett and Oro de Calabaza from the barrel. Bottle conditioned for natural carbonation. Enjoy ...
There seems to be a new collaboration brew coming out every week these days. Some are born from friendship, some from mutual admiration for each others craft, and some are just from a marketing standpoint. Calabaza Boreal was born from admiration and friendship. When American wild ales first began to surface, for me, Jolly Pumpkin was at the forefront and still is. In 2009, before starting Anchorage Brewing Company, I was given a bottle of Oro de Calabaza from Matt Dinges of the Shelton Brothers when he was visiting for our annual Barleywine Fest. That beer is still one of my favorite beers, and was my inspiration to start Anchorage Brewing Company. After starting the brewery with Shelton representing me, Matt introduced me to Ron Jeffries, the spooky guy behind Jolly Pumpkin. We would chat back and forth about brewing with oak and different techniques we use in our breweries. Eventually, we decided to make a beer together. It has been such a huge honor to create something with someone that has inspired me so much! Well, it turns out that Ron is just a regular person like the rest of us (well maybe not quite normal), and we have become good friends since I traveled to Michigan to brew the Jolly Pumpkin version of this beer. The Anchorage version is the same beer recipe, different primary yeast, and a dosing of Oro de Calabaza right from the barrel to incorporate a bit of the Jolly Pumpkin flavor into the beer.
Now its come full circle, first with an inspiring bottle of Oro, now to a collaboration brew with a bit of Oro in the blend. Thanks Ron, for the continued friendship and inspiration! Distributed By My Friends, The Shelton Brothers [undersigned] Gabe Fletcher Founder/Brewer [&] Ron Jefferies General Mischief Maker Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales
Saison brewed with Mosaic and Galaxy hops. Fermented and aged in Foudres with Saison yeast, Brett and Oro de Calabaza from the barrel. Bottle conditioned for natural carbonation. Enjoy ...
There seems to be a new collaboration brew coming out every week these days. Some are born from friendship, some from mutual admiration for each others craft, and some are just from a marketing standpoint. Calabaza Boreal was born from admiration and friendship. When American wild ales first began to surface, for me, Jolly Pumpkin was at the forefront and still is. In 2009, before starting Anchorage Brewing Company, I was given a bottle of Oro de Calabaza from Matt Dinges of the Shelton Brothers when he was visiting for our annual Barleywine Fest. That beer is still one of my favorite beers, and was my inspiration to start Anchorage Brewing Company. After starting the brewery with Shelton representing me, Matt introduced me to Ron Jeffries, the spooky guy behind Jolly Pumpkin. We would chat back and forth about brewing with oak and different techniques we use in our breweries. Eventually, we decided to make a beer together. It has been such a huge honor to create something with someone that has inspired me so much! Well, it turns out that Ron is just a regular person like the rest of us (well maybe not quite normal), and we have become good friends since I traveled to Michigan to brew the Jolly Pumpkin version of this beer. The Anchorage version is the same beer recipe, different primary yeast, and a dosing of Oro de Calabaza right from the barrel to incorporate a bit of the Jolly Pumpkin flavor into the beer.
Now its come full circle, first with an inspiring bottle of Oro, now to a collaboration brew with a bit of Oro in the blend. Thanks Ron, for the continued friendship and inspiration! Distributed By My Friends, The Shelton Brothers [undersigned] Gabe Fletcher Founder/Brewer [&] Ron Jefferies General Mischief Maker Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales
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Reviewed by DraftMonger from Denmark
3.83/5 rDev -7.9%
look: 3 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3 | overall: 4.25
3.83/5 rDev -7.9%
look: 3 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3 | overall: 4.25
Copenhagen 18/5 2018. 75 cl bottle from Mikkeller Webshop. Some crazy bearded half-naked modern Medicine Man with antlers and a Pumpkin head on the label. Must be kind of Chilly in Alaska.
Pours hazy pale yellow with a big white head. Settles as a fluffy thin layer of foam crawling up the side of the glass. Moderate lacing.
Aroma is intense and sour wild, sour forest Berries with a strong citric influence. Grapefruit in abundance. Acerbic. Touch of black Pepper and alcohol.
Medium strong carbonation providing lively, prickly mouthfeel. Slightly thick creamy texture.
Flavor is moderately sweet followed by strong citric sourness. Aftertaste is sour bordering on being acidic. Finish is dry.
Nice sour Saison with a decent ABV. What's not to like?
Feb 11, 2026Pours hazy pale yellow with a big white head. Settles as a fluffy thin layer of foam crawling up the side of the glass. Moderate lacing.
Aroma is intense and sour wild, sour forest Berries with a strong citric influence. Grapefruit in abundance. Acerbic. Touch of black Pepper and alcohol.
Medium strong carbonation providing lively, prickly mouthfeel. Slightly thick creamy texture.
Flavor is moderately sweet followed by strong citric sourness. Aftertaste is sour bordering on being acidic. Finish is dry.
Nice sour Saison with a decent ABV. What's not to like?
Reviewed by dano213 from Pennsylvania
4.19/5 rDev +0.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
4.19/5 rDev +0.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
750ml corked and caged bottle purchased off the shelf for $16.49. "Batch #3, Nov/2015"; I'm not sure if that's when it was brewed or bottled, but basically this beer is approximately 6 years old. I probably purchased this beer betwen two and four years ago.
Look: Beautiful golden color with an off-white head that receded to a very thin, fine-bubbled layer. Has nice clarity.
Smell: Has an enticing nose - tart acidity, oak, bright citrus notes, and funk. There are some secondary medicinal notes.
Taste: This beer has a much fuller flavor on the palate than I was expecting from the nose. Up front, it's bright and citrusy with balanced acidity. The body is light and effervescent. Then the finish is dry, strongly bitter, and lingers long with lots of pith and pepper. The grapefruit peel and its essential oils really comes through in the finish, and it coats the mouth with an interesting almost mouth-numbing sensation. This beer must have evolved a lot since it was brewed; it's definitely good now, and I'm curious how it tasted when it was fresher.
Feel: Light and effervescent, and has bold, full flavors for its mouthfeel. Somewhat oily mouthfeel on the finish.
Overall: It's a delicious, refreshing, and sufficiently complex beer. I'm not sure if this beer has improved with age, or if it is considered past its prime at this point. Regardless, I am enjoying this one with some age on it. I think that most of the Mosaic and Galaxy hop aromatics have understandably faded. There must also be some advantages that come with age in that the Brett and other elements have blended and become more rounded over time.
Jan 11, 2022Look: Beautiful golden color with an off-white head that receded to a very thin, fine-bubbled layer. Has nice clarity.
Smell: Has an enticing nose - tart acidity, oak, bright citrus notes, and funk. There are some secondary medicinal notes.
Taste: This beer has a much fuller flavor on the palate than I was expecting from the nose. Up front, it's bright and citrusy with balanced acidity. The body is light and effervescent. Then the finish is dry, strongly bitter, and lingers long with lots of pith and pepper. The grapefruit peel and its essential oils really comes through in the finish, and it coats the mouth with an interesting almost mouth-numbing sensation. This beer must have evolved a lot since it was brewed; it's definitely good now, and I'm curious how it tasted when it was fresher.
Feel: Light and effervescent, and has bold, full flavors for its mouthfeel. Somewhat oily mouthfeel on the finish.
Overall: It's a delicious, refreshing, and sufficiently complex beer. I'm not sure if this beer has improved with age, or if it is considered past its prime at this point. Regardless, I am enjoying this one with some age on it. I think that most of the Mosaic and Galaxy hop aromatics have understandably faded. There must also be some advantages that come with age in that the Brett and other elements have blended and become more rounded over time.
Reviewed by WalrusOfTime from Washington
4.5/5 rDev +8.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
4.5/5 rDev +8.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
Calabaza Boreal from Anchorage Brewing is a saison hopped with Mosaic and Galaxy hops, barrel aged with Brett and Oro de Calabaza, as well as Grapefruit juice and peel as well as peppercorns. It's a collab with Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales out of Michigan. It was an inspirational beer brewed out of honor to the influences that Jolly Pumpkin had on starting the great Anchorage Brewing, and it shows it was a labor of love. It's got a light body, and it's quite carbonated as it bubbles from the bottom of your glass. It does not have that much of a smell, just a fresh smell. It's taste has loads of grapefruit, which brings a nice tartness to the flavor. It has some nice hop notes in the middle, which gives it a more complex flavor. It finishes nicely with the Brett funk and the Oro de Calabaza, which gives this beer very high notes for me. Would recommend any collab between the breweries.
Jul 30, 2019
Reviewed by StoutElk_92 from Massachusetts
4.67/5 rDev +12.3%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75
4.67/5 rDev +12.3%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75
Batch #3, bottled Nov/2015
Fresh grapefruit juice, tart citrus peel, lemon, lime, peppercorn spice, bready crackery pale malts, some banana, vanilla, mild funk
Jan 21, 2019Fresh grapefruit juice, tart citrus peel, lemon, lime, peppercorn spice, bready crackery pale malts, some banana, vanilla, mild funk
Rated by BenHoppy from Michigan
4.33/5 rDev +4.1%
look: 5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
4.33/5 rDev +4.1%
look: 5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
pretty good saison that has a lambic feel, bit sour and slightly acidic yet enticingly refreshing.
Dec 05, 2018
Reviewed by biboergosum from Canada (AB)
3.99/5 rDev -4.1%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
3.99/5 rDev -4.1%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
750ml, caged and corked bottle (batch #3, from Nov. 2015, wow) - there's just too much potentially going on in this offering for me to make any pithy comment at the outset.
This beer pours a hazy, pale golden yellow colour, with a teeming tower of puffy, rocky, and chunky bone-white head, which leaves some random, thickly splotched lace around the glass as it quickly abates.
It smells of grainy and crackery wheat malt, sort of stale generic citrus fruity notes, some mild musty funkiness, tanned leather, muddled peppercorn dust, and some plain earthy, leafy and floral green hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy cereal malt, an increasingly funky astringency, still kind of overripe white grapefruit and lemon esters, musty barrel staves, testy rainbow peppercorns, and more understated leafy, weedy, and herbal 'verdant' hoppiness.
The carbonation is fairly active in its palate-enveloping frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and actually fairly smooth, the various potential interlopers taking a smoke break, or something, here. It finishes trending dry, the saison yeast, miserly malt, and lingering peppery essences sealing the deal.
Overall - while this is still a complex and complicated brew (don't exactly know which way I'm swinging in that comparison, at the moment), it seems to maybe have lost a lot of the multi-fold grapefruit character so promised. At any rate, a damned fine sour brew, even if I am not getting any of the titular gourd flavour (thank Jebus!).
Jan 16, 2018This beer pours a hazy, pale golden yellow colour, with a teeming tower of puffy, rocky, and chunky bone-white head, which leaves some random, thickly splotched lace around the glass as it quickly abates.
It smells of grainy and crackery wheat malt, sort of stale generic citrus fruity notes, some mild musty funkiness, tanned leather, muddled peppercorn dust, and some plain earthy, leafy and floral green hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy cereal malt, an increasingly funky astringency, still kind of overripe white grapefruit and lemon esters, musty barrel staves, testy rainbow peppercorns, and more understated leafy, weedy, and herbal 'verdant' hoppiness.
The carbonation is fairly active in its palate-enveloping frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and actually fairly smooth, the various potential interlopers taking a smoke break, or something, here. It finishes trending dry, the saison yeast, miserly malt, and lingering peppery essences sealing the deal.
Overall - while this is still a complex and complicated brew (don't exactly know which way I'm swinging in that comparison, at the moment), it seems to maybe have lost a lot of the multi-fold grapefruit character so promised. At any rate, a damned fine sour brew, even if I am not getting any of the titular gourd flavour (thank Jebus!).
Reviewed by wordemupg from Canada (AB)
4.28/5 rDev +2.9%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
4.28/5 rDev +2.9%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
750ml corked and caged batch#3 Nov/15 poured into tulip 8/12/17
Looks great, some suspended particles in a golden yellow body, lots of tiny bubbles feeding a long lasting bone white foam that leaves lots of random lace. Not as much grapefruit as I was expecting, lemon, floral, leather, funk, a little wet wood, I'm guessing it would've been a hop bomb two years ago as it still has some tropical notes, I get the pepper in the mouth but I doubt I'd guess peppercorns were added, just spicy. Interesting mix going on, funks starting to come out for sure, one of those brews I want to try at all ages.
Dec 08, 2017Looks great, some suspended particles in a golden yellow body, lots of tiny bubbles feeding a long lasting bone white foam that leaves lots of random lace. Not as much grapefruit as I was expecting, lemon, floral, leather, funk, a little wet wood, I'm guessing it would've been a hop bomb two years ago as it still has some tropical notes, I get the pepper in the mouth but I doubt I'd guess peppercorns were added, just spicy. Interesting mix going on, funks starting to come out for sure, one of those brews I want to try at all ages.
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