Jolly Pumpkin - Maracaibo Especial Vintage Reserve 2015

Catching up with last week's gem from the stash, Maracaibo Especial from Jolly Pumpkin. I have had various beers from Jolly Pumpkin over the years and they have always been exceptional so expectations were high for this one.

The side of the bottle gives a better description of what this is than I could.

A rich brown ale inspired by the enigmatic monastic brews of Belgium, and the mysterious mist shrouded jungles of the tropics. Brewed with real cacao, and spiced with cinnamon and sweet orange peel for a sensual delight. A brew to be sipped, savoured, and enjoyed!

This poured a lovey chestnut brown, with a good one finger beige head on it. I could smell the Belgian influence straight away, with a subtle barnyard funk emanating from the glass. Closer inspection you get some sour cherries with a hint of chocolate. Cinnamon and Orange Peel are usually quite strong aromas but I didn't get any of them.

The cinnamon comes through more on the taste, but it was still fairly muted and the orange peel was non existent. But there was chocolate, and a sort of candied sugar sweetness. As with other Jolly Pumpkin beers the sour funky side of things is subtle rather than face puckering, which works well in this style and is actually more of a Flanders red funk with those cherry notes and a bit of soy on the back end.

All in all this is wonderfully subtle, which may seem like a weird thing to say, but you can pick out all those flavours without a big punch from any of them. My opinion of Jolly Pumpkin has been reinforced by another excellent beer from them.