Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
750 ml bottle courtesy of Thaichile. Pour is clouded golden yellow with a snow white 2 inch head. Nice streaked lacing. Aroma of tart, citric earthy yeastiness. Some wheatiness under that. Taste of tart, slightly sour wheatiness, some bright lemon peel citrus. The bitterness really brightens up the finish. Some grassy hay yeast elements in the finish as well. Palate is thin to medium, a little slick making it very drinkable. Thanks for sending this one my way Mark!
Oakes (33770) reviewed Good Harbor Golden from Leelanau Brewing Company 17 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Straw coloured and cloudy. Nose of pediococcus, wood and a little brett. Taste is pedio, wood, brett, too. Hint of tartness...fun stuff...not too different from other soury funky American experiments but I like it.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Bottle courtesy of JMFG. Pours cloudy hay color with white head. Sour, funky aroma. Sour and sweet flavors with some funkiness and oak also. Medium body with average carbonation. It has that signature Jollly Pumpkin flavor to it. A very nice beer.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Bottle that holds a hazy, pale yellow liquid that supports a massive, fluffy, white head with sour aromas hitting my nose before I’m even done pouring. Closer inspection confirms the lemony aromas and some sidenotes of lemon and grass. Flavor is wonderfully tart... lemon peel and spice, but comes off as very refreshing and crisp. At first I thought it seemed pretty thin and unidimensional, but I really like how it all hangs together and consider these \"flaws\" to be strengths after further consideration. Wish I had bought a couple more bottles since I don’t know when I’ll see this again.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Long history with this beer. Got this while ago in a trade from MI2CA, Ted always hooks it up. However, I did not enjoy the bottle, did not even rate the beer. But recently tried it again @ Bar Great Harry in Brooklyn. This time it was a very different and much more interesting experience. Pours a very extraordinary pale color, yet you cannot see through it. Has a small head to go with that. It’s a very lemon-y and tart brew with touches of acidity (not much). But the I loved the drink-ability of it. It was almost like an Uber Berliner Weisse.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Cloudy golden beer with an effervescent body and frothy, thick lacing - semi-tart, kind of wheaty aroma, with some wildflower kicking around back there, along with some lemony smells and a bit of spice - fairly dry and tart, with strong oak flavor - some grainy, wheaty character arrives late, and mildly sour citrus/lemon rind - mild funkiness, wild qualities - a brief hint of sweetness and floral hints - not so much a biere de garde as a tart belgian ale, but pretty decent either way.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Bottle. Pours a very pale gold color with a pretty substantial head at first that dies quickly and leaves little lacing and a bit of a thin coat of bubbles across the surface. Aromas are an acrid mix of spices that promises a very tart flavor down the road. The nose is a little off-putting... In spite of that, the flavor is one of the more palatable that I’ve had by Jolly Pumpkin (err... Leelanau). Pineapple sweetness is a good description of the beginning flavors, and this develops into a bit of a sour transition and then a lemon-grass finish. All of this with a kind of musty and yeasty backdrop.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Bottle from Iowaherkeye, shared at gathering. Glowing yellow/golden color. Strong aroma of sourness with lemon hints. Very spiky mouthfeel and lemon heavy flavor with just a bit of Belgian sweetness. The sour is definitely Jolly Pumpkin signature but actually better than their golden ale. I wish JP could make more stuff this well balanced with sour and light Belgian flavors. I really could just enjoy this all the time. Also, I don’t know the strength but this is a nice Belgian Ale or even a saison and not what I would consider a BdG.8/3/8/3/17
Re-rate: bottle @ Bar Great Harry. This seems to be a different batch and its become a little different, more of a sour, acidic, and very tart brew. Lost those light sweet Belgian flavors, which is ok because I love the added acidity. It does seem to be different than the JP sour stuff, particularly in the acidity department, a lot more lambic-like, so I am not sure how differently the barrels were treated. I really like this beer right now. 8/3/8/4/17
JK (8171) reviewed Whaleback White from Leelanau Brewing Company 18 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Light spice and wheat. Mild clove and the standard coriander. A very drinkable and well crafted, if uninteresting, wit. Standard cloudy yellow appearance. No flaws.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 5
Bottle from ogglethorp - cloudy golden, with quite a pillowy head - VERY JP aroma - touches of brett funk and loads of lemon zest, along with some light orange peel and barely detectable spices - the flavor and finish are dominated by sourness, so much so that the original qualitites of the beer, if they were there to begin with, don’t get picked up by the palate at all - no citrus of spices, just sourness - I love JP, and I love sour beer, but I need complexity to go along with it, and this just doesn’t have that.