I hope I'm not rushing into things too quickly here. (Photo via MK Heisler)

Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales in Dexter, MI

A new love is brewing. And I’m afraid it’s going to tear a friendship apart.

Gary waxed poetic not long ago about his fascination with the sour ale giants in Dexter, MI, Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales. I’d always been fascinated with their beers, but had only a brief time to sample their selections when I was still living in Michigan. The brewery was just starting to explode as I left the state, and my mind had still not been made up about these funky and sour beers that certainly didn’t taste like regular amber ales or stouts. A trip back to Ann Arbor for New Year’s tossed me into their new brewhouse downtown where I got my hands on a few of these other hard-to-come-by ales, but the jury was still out.

But here JP and I are again, finding ourselves in the same city, seeing each other at the same bars, and occasionally running into each other at our favorite stores. We chat a little bit, flirt, and decide to go out for drinks. I try to tell Gary, but I know it will hurt him right now since he’s on a brief hiatus in Arkansas, so I keep it short. I tell him we’re just friends. That’s all.

But, Gary, this is bad news, but I’m in love with Oro de Calabaza, and I’m afraid others might be, too.

Ron Jeffries, owner of Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales.

It’s nice to find beer here that is such a different offering than what I’ve ever tried before. I’ve tried to branch out from my standards, and Jolly Pumpkin is really holding my hand through a lot of this new journey. And the Oro is quite a fucking tour guide.

Pouring a luscious and ultra-carbonated golden amber, the Oro immediately erupted with a strong and flavorful scent of citrus fruits like lemon and sprinklings of orange. The sour funk wasn’t as pronounced as expected, and it actually helped to cut the overall intensity that I thought the fruit would bring. There really is no time to waste on this one, so I took a sip and hoped to be astounded. What I got was pure love. This might be one of the most refreshing and drinkable ales I’ve ever enjoyed. Splashes of lemon zest mingled perfectly with a full and soft mouthfeel that meshed in to a perfect cover of sour touches at the end. Again, I was expecting a lot more sour hints, but this one was quite somber. Further sips only bring out further flavors with touches of pineapple touching hints of malt again splash slowly and easily into a nice farmhouse feeling. For 8%, you’d think more alcohol would peak through underneath the sour notes, but it was nowhere to be found. Which could be a true recipe for disaster if I ever found this on tap somewhere in D.C.

So, yes, a love affair is blossoming. I hate telling people about how great Jolly Pumpkin is in general, fearing that others will go after such an attractive specimen and that I won’t be able to see her often, if at all. Even so, maybe it’s better that way. I don’t want to ruin such a good thing by rushing into it so quickly.

We don’t normally post about other blogs going on, especially if they are not beer-centric. This one, however, was just so appealing that I couldn’t go on without letting all our loyal fans know about it. Marty Wombacher is on a mission to visit a different bar everyday and post some information and pictures of it the next day. The rules from his website are pretty simple: he must spend 1 hour a day in a bar for 365 days; if he misses a day, he must start over; and he cannot visit the same bar twice, with the exception of his favorite which he may go back to on the 365th day.

Today is day 60 in his adventure and he hasn’t missed one yet. He has been garnering a fair amount of press lately, mostly good, but some bad. After a recent trip to the House of Brews, which had advertised beers on their website that they didn’t actually have, he wrote them a less than glowing review, though very colorful. Although the proprietor of the House of Brews was not pleased with the review, the general reaction seems to be he is doing people a service by giving honest opinions and reviews of the places he visits. One thing Marty said that I really liked was his comments about why people actually go to bars.

“My ideal New York bar is a dive bar with really interesting characters,” said Wombacher. “If you have the coolest bar in the world, but it is filled with jerks, then you will have a rotten time. Who wants to drink in a room filled with jerks?”

He is definitely right. Many of my favorite places are my favorite not because of the type of beer they serve (they are rarely the ONLY place where I can get the brew) and more to do with what sort of interactions I have there. Whether is it a free drink from a portly bartender who chats you up about the latest Griz win or just another patron who smiles at you, these sort of people actually draw customers because they are fun to be around, regardless of what you are drinking.

Keep up the good work Marty. For those of you who don’t have enough interweb time wasters, go ahead and favorite aguywalksinto365bars.com to keep updated on his lasted adventures!

For the few of you who bought a pair of Reef Sandals and always wished you had another ridiculous beer accessory,  we have the perfect thing for you. The Happy Hour Watch will provide you with countless great party conversations about how you use your watch as opposed to a beer key or lighter to open your beers. In addition it lets your know what time of day it is once a day, and you guessed it, its at 5 o’clock! All at only $50 a pop. All things considered, I hope no one is buying this product. Your cellphone or watch you already have takes care of the time issue, and much more clearly. There are also a plethora of other things, including a piece of paper! Instead of wasting your money on this gag gift, use it to buy yourself some nice bottles of beer and worry about how to open them later.

This weeks beer video features three short commercials from a Thai beer company called Cheers. Hope you enjoy them.

My hat is off to Jay Brooks over at Brookston Beer Bulletin. Yesterday in honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday he wrote a parody of Green Eggs and Ham called Craft Beer and Ale. He did a great job and I would highly encourage everyone to take five minutes to read it over and check out the modified illustrations.

Ever wish your lab or retriever could go to the fridge and grab you a cold one? Well maybe he would have a little more motivation if you kept some Bowser Beer in there too. A company called 3 Busy Dogs is making three different flavors of dog beer: Beefy Brown Ale, Cock-a-Doodle Brew, and even a Low Cal beer. Non of them contain alcohol, and I’m not even sure if any of them are even “brewed.”

Bowser Beer is a fun, but healthy treat packaged as a beer so you can celebrate with your pets responsibly.  Made with USDA beef or chicken, it’s lovingly brewed with malt barley (for healthy coats) and glucosamine (for healthy joints).  Best of all, everything is made in the U.S.A.

I did some looking around, and there isn’t any available in Helena, however, it is distributed in both Bozeman and Billings. I think if  I were to review it, I would probably try the Beefy Brown Ale, it does sound pretty good.

As much as I don’t like Budweiser, I can’t endorse spilled beer, or beer being thrown away. Early this morning, a tractor-trailer full of Budweiser jackknifed and spilled its load on the side of the road.

Investigators said the driver was northbound on Highway 15 when he ran off the right side of the roadway and overcorrected, causing the big rig to jackknife.

The load of Budweiser then shifted, causing the tractor-trailer to overturn and slide off the right edge of the road.

The worst part it all the beer was loaded into a giant dumpster and taken to the landfill courtesy of health department orders. Too bad I don’t live near Scotland County, Missouri, or I would be engaged in some serious dumpster diving.

The results are in folks. Wynkoop Brewing Company has crowned a new Beer Drinker of the Year. Congratulations to Bill Howell of Sterling, Alaska. The retired Navy officer is currently a college administrator and in 2007 designed a class called “The Art and History of Brewing.” After being weighed in and hours of judging and challenges including “beer whispering” and “the bribing of the judges,” Bill was chosen as the new Beer Drinker of the year.

Beer whispering is more akin to a poetry reading than a real tasting of beer.  The candidates were told to bring a beer and describe what the beer “whispers” to them.

This event sounds awesome regardless of whether you are a competitor or not. Perhaps some day one of the BarBEERians will make it down there as a competitor, maybe even be crowned as Beer Drinker of the Year!

I know this post is a little out of the normal, but I found it greatly amusing. The Mt. Shasta Brewing Company has recently received an award for its exceptional marketing success. The United States Commerce Association gave it a Best of Local Business Award, which from the small amount of research I did, means absolutely nothing and is just a scheme to sell plaques. Anyway there was a small article on it through which I discovered they print “Try Legal Weed” on their bottle caps. A simply genius marketing device. I love it. Said bottle caps caused some controversy over the last year, but eventually won out against the feds. If there are any readers around Weed, California, I think a “Try Legal Weed” growler would look great next to my “Bongwater Growler.”

Alright, this one is for all of our Michigan readers, well maybe only those in Ann Arbor. Whole Foods Cranbrook is now selling and filling growlers! They seem a little pricey to get filled, but that is compared to the rates here. I have no idea what it costs to fill growlers in Michigan, any help? Oh, they also currently have Bell’s Batch 9,000 Ale on tap. To top it off, you can enjoy a delicious pint while you do your grocery shopping!

Full Story at AnnArbor.com