Beer Review: Rogue Brutal IPA

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 5.80 percent

Appearance: This brew had a creamy orange-colored body with somewhat of an opaque look to it. It was quite hazy and foggy. I assume it was from the hop oils as this was an IPA. I stuck this under a lap and the color just dazzled under the light. I also peered in close to notice a few carbonation bubbles dancing slowly upwards. The head was thick, fluffy and also cream colored. A small contrast to the color of the body. The head slowly caved in after reaching its peak. The lacing that was left was thick and had no breaks.

Smell: The aroma of this was quite sweet and tangy. Somewhat citrusy, too. Mostly dominated by the scent of orange peel. I also got a touch of both pine and spiciness.

Taste: This was clearly not as "brutal" as I had initially anticipated. Which for me is a positive thing. It was quite biscuity on the front. There were some pine and orange notes mid-way back. The finish featured a nice hop bitterness. Just enough to make this an enjoyable IPA for me. I wanted some carbonation to even out some texture and mouth feel with this one, but I found some luck in the foamy head providing some smoothness on each sip.

Overall Rating: 

This is a winner for me with my unique tastes in the IPA style. I want a bready or biscuit flavor backbone in there to counteract some of the intense bitterness provided by the hops in these brews. I definitely got it in this one. The color was very attractive. The activeness of the foam just added to the luster. Can't wait until I have this one again.

Beer Review: Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 4.8 percent

Appearance: Morimoto Soba Ale poured a pale orange color. Interesting, yet attractive. There was a very slight haze to it as well as a fluffy white head. I can't begin to describe the fluffiness of this head, though. It was fluffy to the point where it was even. I mean that in a very good way. The head gave way to some thick and sticky lacing later in the drink.

Smell: The scents that I picked up were very dry and sort of on the darker side, much to my surprise. This had a strong nutty aroma and a lot of dry grain. I was kind of confused.

Taste: The dryness penetrated the tongue rather harshly when I first sipped this beer. The nutty and roasty flavors from the Soba used in the brewing process came next. The Soba compliments the dry flavors up front in a very positive way. Still, I just found my tongue tied upon tasting this. Very odd flavor indeed.

Overall Rating:

I'm starting to have a bad string of reviews when it comes to Rogue brews. Some of them are creative, but just don't play well with my taste buds. Maybe in a way they're just too creative. The roasty and nutty flavors in this brew play well off of each other like a nice couple, but I went into this thinking fruit beer. When I think fruit beer I prefer some tartness from the fruit. Soba is a form of buckwheat. Not sure if one can consider that fruit. If there is fruit in this beer, I didn't pick up any of it.

The More You Know

There's just some things about craft breweries we follow and drink beer from. Take Lagunitas Brewing in Petaluma, California for example. I love the beer. I might even love the mason jar glass I got in a local trade a bit more.

Still, there's something about the brewery's sarcastic attitude. I'm not saying it's wrong. The brewery is free to portray itself in any way it feels fit. I used to follow it on Twitter, but  it got to the point that to where I was feeling that the tweets were in some kind of code. Not much of it made sense to me for whatever reason. I didn't have my decoder ring to get my Ovaltine ad. So, I just simply unfollowed. Not a big deal.

I get the same vibe from quite a few other breweries. I think that many craft breweries are a microcosm of a good portion of their following. It's just a generational thing. I think a lot of the generation that got into the craft movement is really outspoken. Again. not saying that's wrong. That's just what I've observed. Something like Twitter makes it easy for the outspoken ones to be...well, outspoken.

I guess sometimes things just boil over and get taken too far. That certainly isn't that first time that's happened in this country. If you don't have time to click and read the link, Rogue Ales had a very odd career posting to say the least.

I understand that the thing to do in craft beer is to go all-out with your brewing. In some cases, that makes the beer just taste odd to me. I've had a few instances with Rogue brews in my limited experience with beer. Really, really odd brews.

Beer Review: Rogue Dead Guy Ale

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 6.5 percent

Appearance: Dead Guy Ale is a light shade of amber, but gives off an effervescent orange hue.Atop this brew, there was an off-white head that was thick and frothy. This was the type of head that gets stuck on your nose and upper lip on the first sip. I love that in a beer. There was a ton of bubbles surging towards the top of the glass. I also noticed a lot of thick lacing left inside the glass as I kept drinking more of it.

Smell: I mainly was able to pick up a ton of hop bitterness in the aroma for this beer. There was also a highlight or two of citrus, but I doubt that was from orange or lemon. My guess it was a characteristic of the hop content. I'd prefer a bit more diversity in this section, but this wasn't quite on an IPA level.

Taste: I tasted plenty of honey and sweet malt on the front. There was plenty more malt than honey as we should expect in a German Maibock, but I also like some honey presence.That was followed by a tasty combination of pale wheat, a creaminess and hop notes on the finish. The aftertaste was calm, yet bitter. In my opinion, a great Maibock/Helles Bock has honey sweetness and a lot of sweet malt present. Sometimes the malt can even have a bitter bite to it.

Overall Rating:  

When it comes to German styles of beer, I want whatever I have to make me feel like I'm sitting in a beer garden somewhere smelling the fresh hop vines and eating a salty pretzel. I got pretty close when drinking Dead Guy Ale. I missed the malt presence in the aroma. I got too much hops, but the attractiveness and the wonderful taste of this brew was more than enough for me.

Beer Review: Rogue Juniper Pale Ale

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 5.3 percent

Appearance: Rogue's Juniper Pale Ale has a body that resembled the color of golden honey and had a slight haze that hid any presence of carbonation bubbles. It was topped off with a puffy white head that rose to a peak of about three inches. If was soft to the touch and faded away fast as you drink it. Most of it stuck to the inside of the glass. Enough was left that I wasn't sure whether I should have still called it head or lacing. In my book that's a good thing.

Smell: I was kind of reminded of a spruce ale when I initially smelled this brew. I was kind of confused. It was full of spruce and pine. By pine, I don't exactly mean in a hop sense. It actually smelled like the woods. Basically, intense grassiness. I didn't pick up much of anything else such as hop notes or malt.

Taste: To put it simply, the pine essence in this beer was stingy on my tongue. A lot of people expect this beer to have tartness of berries when in fact juniper berries are more like pine cones. I got some of the malt character this time around. There was a ton of malt in this, as Rogue had a big malt bill. It was almost as if the flavor of this beer was undecided on what it actually wanted ti be. This had a very dry finish as well. Nothing in this beer said pale ale to me.

Overall Rating: 

A week or two ago I posted a Monday Rant on the increasing variety of American Pale Ales. This just might fall into that category. This beer was just weird for my tastes. I understand that Rogue is very creative and I appreciate that, but this just wasn't up my alley. When I get spruce or pine, I want something darker, sweeter and a with some molasses or brown sugar.

Rogue Beard Brew Set for 2013

Remember that beer that was supposed to have yeast from a Rogue Ales brewer's beard in it? Well, that beer that sent ripples across the craft beer world a few months ago finally has a release date associated with it (as far as I can remember there wasn't a date attached previously.

It's not much more than a ballpark figure, but you can expect this beer at some point in 2013. Which month exactly? Well, I can't find anything just yet.

I'm still not sure as to how excited I am for this beer. I mean it's yeast from someone's beard. That's not entirely appetizing for me. still, we've seen many weird things put into new beers. I just sent a link on my Twitter feed about a brewery putting old pages of Moby Dick into a new concoction. Obviously, the possibilities are endless.

 

PCBW Event That Jumps Out

If you've been highly anticipating the arrival of Pittsburgh's inaugural craft beer week, then there's no doubt you've been eying up some of the scheduled events in between this Friday and next Saturday.

There are now well over 300 craft beer events, tastings and dinners planned. One I keep coming back to is the Rogue Ale and Cheese Pairing at Blue Dust on April 27.

It's denoted on the event's page that there will be a portion of the event dedicated to which cheese should be paired with the well-known Voodoo Maple Bacon Ale go with, which is the most intriguing aspect of it for me.

I've been told that the ale isn't something to get that excited about, but I'm still interested in trying it for myself. Some interesting pairings can't be a bad thing either.

I'm also looking into attending quite a few more of the events, schedule permitting.
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Beer Review: Rogue Yellow Snow IPA

The Pittsburgh area got hammered with snow all day yesterday. So, I felt this beer was fitting to be reviewed today.


Serving Type: Draft

ABV: 6.2 percent

Appearance:Yellow Snow isn't exactly what I expected when I read the name of this beer. It is a very hazy orange. On of the haziest beers I've ever seen. The head is very white and thick at first, but a good bit of it dissipates before half of the beer is consumed.

Smell: This beer is very hoppy. The only fruitiness I got out of it was a strong hint of grapefruit.

Taste: The grapefruit hits the front of the tongue and is very potent. On the back of the tongue you get that strong, hoppy IPA bitterness. The bartender told me it's supposed to remind the drinker of an orange creamsicle. I definitely wasn't tasting one of those.

Overall Rating: 

If you're a fan of the hopped-up IPA's then this beer is right up your alley. I'm not one for over-bearing flavor in my beers. I like for it to be friendly to my nose and taste buds as I am to it.