awesome brewery, bad name

From Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales in Dexter, Michigan: Luciernaga (6.5%abv)

God I love this brewery. I got to visit it last May on the World Class Beverage Michigan trip. Very small. Very artisinal. The owner/brewer sure knows how to make excellent Belgian beers. They are really just spot on. Unforunately, I just can't get over the damn branding. I bitch about it everytime I talk about this brewery. It's a pirate and Caribbean themed artisan Belgian brewery...in Michigan.

Whatever. The labels are fucking awesome. And the beer...well the beer is just out of this world and that's what counts I suppose.

The first thing that you notice about this beer is the massive carbonation. Literally hundreds of gushing streams of carbonation erupt at the surface creating a massive frothy off-white head. And this beer has an awesome head. Just look at the picture. Very thick, rocky meringue-y head after a top off. Thick gobs of lace have stuck to the glass and retained their structure for 15 minutes now. And as even as the beer has warmed there's still a ton of carbonation coming out of solution. The beer is an appropriate deep hazy orange color.

The nose is potent. I want to say there is a good dose of Brettanomyces funk in the nose along side a very potent earthy hop aroma. Really spot on in the nose here. Maybe some spicing as well. A very complex aroma.

What a wonderful tasting beer. Tn interesting interplay between spicing and hopping. The spicing adds a nice extra dimension to the hop character of this beer which is really all about the bittering. A very bitter Belgian ale. Not much in the way of malt flavors here. The spicing and hops really seem to dominate this tasting for me. This is a fairly dry beer and the hefty carbonation amplifies that dryness. With the high hopping rate all of this leads to some astringency in the finish. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of Brett flavors here though.

All in all it reminds me a lot of a spiced Orval that's not quite as dry or funky. I'd age these bottles to let the spice level come down a bit. They really dominate the beer and I think I'd like it more if they were more of a background thing.