La Roja With Boysenberry & Guava
Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales

750ml bottle from Tavour. Murky dark amber body, lasting bubbly head. Fruity aroma, berries first, tropical behind, along with some requisite funk. Oak smooths out the taste and mutes the tartness to an acceptable level (for me). Nice. This is the kind of beer that makes me rethink sours.

 

 

 

Notes from 5/28/2020.
Poured from a 750mL bottle into a Rastal nucleated Teku glass. The body is hazy ruby with 2 fingers of cream colored head. Retention is above average leaving an okay cap.
The intensity of aroma is medium. There are notes of berries, tartness, and oak.
The intensity of taste is just below medium-high. The taste has berries, a lot of oak, and a moderately sour finish. It's very wine like.
The feel is slightly above medium in thickness. It has almost no carbonation and a moderate amount of astringency.
Overall, it's okay. I wanted to try this style but it's too wine like for my taste.

 

 

 

A: The beer is quite hazy brownish red in color. It poured with a quarter finger high beige colored head that left a narrow collar around the edge of the glass and wisps of bubbles on the surface.
S: Light to moderate aromas of sour cherries are present in the nose along with notes of guava.
T: The taste follows the smell and has flavors of sour cherries with notes of boysenberries and hints of guava.
M: It feels light- to medium-bodied and very tart on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: I found this beer to be quite enjoyable as it was sour and still tasted like a Flanders Red Ale - the boysenberries and guava both added some complexity to the smell and taste without overpowering the rest of the beer.

Serving type: bottle

L: A murky reddish-mud with loads of sunk and suspended sediment. The partial cap of beige head sticks around impressively and leaves minor spots of lace.

S: Immensely tart and dry. I get some sour berry, but disappointed that I don’t find any guava.

T: Far too dry for my taste but I know that’s the thing for many. This is also earthy in a less positive way - more strait soil. A little funk but not overpowering.
Even more so than the aroma, the fruit is lost.

F: Moderate weight and average to above average carbonation. Not the driest sour out there but still very dry.

O: These dry sours are not my bag, but I’d still prefer a Vander ghinist Old Bruin any day.

Poured from 750mL bottle into my BeerAdvocate teku.

Appearance: murky reddish hue with a finger of frothy tan foam atop. Not as clear as I like a Flanders Red to be, but since this thing is chock full of fruit I'll give it a pass.

Smell: the aroma is pure Flanders Red left, right and center, however. Tartness, sweetness, a little caramel here and there; you almost lose the fruit entirely in the aroma. That said ... I really really like it.

Taste: good tartness up front; it bites up through my nose! It mellows out quickly, though, with the fruit helping add a nice earthy balance. I think this is an eminently successful beer.

Mouthfeel: medium body with a decent-enough carbonation and creaminess.

Overall: this beer is, simply, my jam. The fruit is an interesting component tacked on to a nice Flanders Red, and I dig it.

 

 

Taking their sour red ale to a tropical and pasture-ready place that its never been before, Jolly Pumpkin open up their fruit experiments to La Roja for a measure of added complexity that involves the generous use of boysenberry and guava.

Pouring a rusty, rosy appearance, the frothy and tarnish soapy cap precedes an aromatic bouquet of red berry, red wine, weathered woods, pepper and an overall funk-filled perfume. Timidly sweet, the beer's early flavor impressions are of fruit rollups, toasted grain and steely caramel.

But as the ale quickly impedes the middle palate, its sweetness becomes a short memory and the juiciness of boysenberry reveals added layers of cranberry, raspberry, cassis and red currant over that of the ale's more natural and nuanced flavors of cider, red wine, apple, lemon and grapefruit. Trending more peppery and earthy late in taste, an acidic pang is laced with the funk and fauna remiss of moss, oak, pepper and peat.

Light, dry and laden with yeast spices, the beer's nearly leathery finish is decorated with a tannin-rich balance with hop bitterness for a sharp and woodsy finish with the skins and peels of citrus, berry and grape with a strong vinous spice in tow. Curiously, the makes relatively little showing anywhere in the beer.

Bought it in a growler and in a bottle from Hyde Park location. After drinking the growler about a week later it was amazing, but like lots of beer gets better with age. I had the bottle about four months after buying it and noticed that there were so many more notes. To be honest I didn’t really pick up on the guava but there were huge blackberry and raspberry after taste going on. Also I picked up on some subtle vinegar notes on the initial taste but quickly disappeared. Definitely a must if you can find it!!!

 

 

a neat special edition of this jolly pumpkin classic, new fruit, tons of complexity, never sweet, its delicious. i think its cool that the fruit doesnt overtake the base beer, i still get that richer malt base and the sourer side of the jolly pumpkin culture that has made this a classic on its own. this combination of boysenberry and guava is real interesting, obviously less traditional than the kriek one, but with a cool almost medicinal tangy jammy thing from the boysenberry, and a sweet, juicy, tropical vibe from the guava, they go so well together but would likely never meet in nature, and this beer seems like the perfect vehicle for their union. its murky muted reddish from the tap without much head, and the feel is a little flat, especially compared with some of their other beers, but its not heavy or anything, it just lingers awhile. really tart beer overall, fruity in a unique way, red wine notes and tannins, lots of funk too, and with the grain profile of the original intact. i hope this is just the beginning of weird fruit combinations in this base beer...

 

Updated 2/5/2022: 750 ml bottle into tulip glass, bottled on 2/7/2018. Pours slightly hazy deep ruby red, light copper/brown color with a 1 finger dense and rocky cream colored head with great retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Aromas and flavors of big sour/tart/tangy raspberry, blackberry, cherry, cranberry, guava, fruit skin, currant, raisin, plum, fig, peach, pear, apricot, melon, red/green apple, red grape/wine, hay, straw, grass, oak, caramel, brown sugar, and toasted bread; with lighter notes of roast, oaken vanilla, pepper, leathery/musty funk, red wine vinegar, and yeast/oak/toasted earthiness. Light-moderate fruity/lactic tart/sourness, fruit tang, and yeast/oak tannin spiciness on the finish. Fantastic complexity, robustness, and balance of fruity/funky/acidic yeast, fruit, oak, and dark/bready malt flavors; with an awesome malt/sour/tartness and tangy fruit balance; with minimal puckering flavors after the finish. Fairly crisp finishing with increasing dryness from tart/sourness and tangy fruit. Medium carbonation and body; with a very smooth, moderately creamy/bready, and acidic/tangy/tannic balanced mouthfeel. Zero warming alcohol for 6.7%. Overall this is a fantastic Flanders red ale! All around awesome complexity, robustness, and balance of fruity/funky/light acidic yeast, fruit, oak, and dark/bready malt flavors; very smooth and easy to drink with the moderately crisp acidic/tangy/drying finish, not overly lactic. Spot on style example after the age. Perfectly balanced Brett/Lacto complexity, fruit, oak, and dark/bready malts. A highly enjoyable offering. Updated overall was that this got a lot more sour, funky, and spot on for the style, and the fruit feels even more jammy along with the added sourness.