A Tasting -- Bam Biere!

In addition to homebrewing, I like to try microbrew offerings, especially from Michigan microbreweries. The cool thing about the Michigan microbreweries is that they don't have a specific identity, like the Northwest or mountain states. They make EVERYTHING. Out West, the choice is whether you want your beer super-hopped or uber-hopped. It's a total pissing contest out there, and beer drinkers lose. It reminds me of people who boast about the amount of spicy heat they like in their food...it seems that at some point, you don't really taste anything.

So, today, my neighbor Bob handed me a bottle of Bam Biere Farmhouse Ale, from the Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales Co. in Dexter, MI. From the bottle,"Golden, naturally cloudy, bottle conditioned, and dry hopped for a perfectly refreshing balance of spicy malts, hops, and yeast."

A bit of explanation. Golden and naturally cloudy are self explanatory. Bottle conditioned means that, like homebrew, the yeast is not filtered out prior to bottling, and is used to naturally carbonate the beer. This also allows for aging of the beer. Dry hopping is placing, well, dry hops right into the fermenter after the boil and cooling of the wort. Those hop oils are thus untouched by heat, which makes for a more pungent bitterness and nose.

So after all of that ado, here are my very unprofessional observations and impressions. The beer poured golden, as advertised, with a tall, creamy, yet very light head right out of the fridge. Unfortunately, I decanted the yeast, as well. Sometimes, bottle yeast is mildly off-flavored, and sometimes it is sulfurous and tart. This was the latter variety. Fortunately, much of the dark brown yeast remained trapped in the head, and I scooped it out with my finger.

I don't know that Farmhouse Ale is an actual variety of beer. The label indicates that it is intended to be refreshing and spicy, so I was expecting something in line with a Belgian ale, like a Hoegaarden. I was surprised to find a strong lemon component, probably a diluted version of the sulfury sediment. I didn't really detect any other fruity flavors, and the spiciness eluded me. The dry-hopping must have been on the light side, as well. It had a nice, light weight, and refreshing liveliness, but in the end, I just wasn't crazy about the flavor.

When my wife tasted it, she suggested that perhaps the bottle had turned. I'll pick up another bottle soon and give it one more go, being careful not to decant the sediment.