Bam Noire

Brewery: Jolly Pumpkin

Type: Saison

Alcohol: 4.3%

Country: USA

After the surprisingly positive experience of Bam Biere, I was really looking forward to trying the darker version. This is my second experience with the "dark" or "black" saison. While not technically a style, more a sub style, this beer caught my eye as something I would potentially enjoy. Not being a huge saison/farmhouse fan, perhaps a little dark malt thrown in might swing this style more towards my tastes. The bottle says it is batch 1079 and was bottled 04-23-2012. This being late December 2013 when I drank it, makes this bottle damn near 2 years old. Mind you I pulled this off the shelf in a liquor store in my home town. Shows how popular "dark saisons" are in Port Huron Michigan.

Pours a deep amberish color bordering on brown. Again a massive foamy white head that lasts forever, just crazy carbonation in these refermented farmhouse beers. Aroma is brett, sharp sour funk notes, pretty awesome farmhouse ale notes mixed with some subtle maltiness. Seems much funkier then the original Bam Biere, but that might be due to the age of this particular bottle. The taste is tart and funky. No yeasty spice like in bam biere, this is all Brett-a-liscious tobacco and wet hay. The thing that elevates this beer in my opinion is the finish. After the funk and dryness a nice slightly roasted chocolatey flavor blooms and mixes with the dryness to create something cool and unique. It's almost nutty at times, like some kind if but dusted in cocoa. Very unique and I liked it a lot. Lots of carbonation just like the original bam, but seems to not detract as much here. I am really satisfied with this beer, I would like to try another bottle to see if the things I liked might be a side effect of age. I would also like to get a few bottles to hide away for a few years.