Jammy Dodgers. Arctic Roll. A Town Called Malice. All iconic things with jam, and this beer deserves its place amongst them.
The thing with sweet flavoured beers is that too often, the flavour tramples all over the beer, making it a nice enough drink for a cocktail or to replace dessert, but meaning you lose the point of it.
Pump Up The Jam is not one of those beers.
Tiny Rebel describes it as 'a jam doughnut in a pint glass. No word of a lie.' and it really is. Combining sweet jam flavours (i'm not a preserve connoisseur, but i'd say there's definitely some raspberries involved) with a malty, bready base; Pump Up The Jam hits the sweet spot all dessert beers should be aiming for.
Pump Up The Jam: Taste Test
From the moment you pop the can, you get the jam. It's very strong in the nose and very mouth-watering The jam takes over everything about the beer's aroma, which you would think would make it overpowering in the taste too.
It isn't. Following a gorgeous deep red pour (raspberry red), all the while whiffing that sweet jammy scent, the first flavour you get is, unsurprisingly, jam. But that's not all. There's a very good pale ale in this doughnut, which is hopped enough to cut through the sweetness of the jam to add some bitterness and remind you you're drinking a beer after all.
The malty, bready flavour of the doughnut comes through more towards the end of the taste and into the aftertaste, leaving a moreish flavour that is the same reason you can scoff 5 doughnuts in a sitting...or is that just me?
Either way, this is an exceptional beer. This should be the industry standard for flavouring beers with sweet stuff. It's perfectly balanced all the way through.
Pump Up The Jam: Can Notes
If Homer Simpson designed a can then this would be it. It's your classic ring doughnut with sprinkles - one that is more common in the US and is probably not the typical jam doughnut you'd get in the UK.
But it is more aesthetically pleasing than a blob of beige dough, which would be the realistic alternative.
It's very 'pop art' with big, bold lettering and the bright pink background (one chain, raspberry pink...) which makes it stand out on any shelf. It's the kind of can that you remember and can pick out against scores of others, like it or not.
Buy Pump Up The Jam Fruit Beer
If you're feeling fruity and fancy pumping up some jam yourself, you can buy it from Honest Brew for just £2.50 for members (£2.99 non-members).
