Rogue Brewer

Brewed by Rogue Ales
Style: American Strong Ale
Newport, Oregon USA

Draft. This seemed to taste like the majority of rogue beers... bitter hop flavor. Dark brown with good lacing. Hoppy aroma.

<i>Any first impressions?</i>
-A veil of foam sits atop the cloudy brown gown.
-Soaring C-hop fruitiness belittles the toasted maltiness.
-The hop kaleidoscope expands into scrumptious leafy, herbal, grapefruity realms, as the tastebuds barely care to notice the delicate roastiness underneath.
-The svelte maltiness and active carbonation create an energetic mouthfeel.

<i>What if you dig deeper?</i>
-Blackberries are found within a complex fruit presence.
-A muscular herbal, wooden, resinous hop bitterness is lengthening pleasure.
-For all that’s going on, this is surprisingly clean all the way through.
-The aroma’s not as complex as the flavor profile, I must say, but this remains a very well-hopped India Dark Ale, a new trend/style I tend to love when well-done such as this one, or The Alchemist’s El Jefe, for example.
-That resinous, coniferous bitterness might overwhelm after a few sips.

<b>From the bottle and on tap at Gingerman, Manhattan.</b>

On tap @ the Mellow Mushroom in Tampa. Poured hazy dark brown with tan head. The aroma has some 120L crystal malts. But the main component was the hops. I smell pine needles, grass and grapefruit hoppiness. The taste was full grapefruit and pine hop bitterness accompanied by some semi sweet roasted maltiness (something like 90 or 120L) and caramel. It actually tastes just a bit like Stone’s ABA. For me that is most welcomed. Very nice brew leaving a pleasant hop bitterness behind in the aftertaste.

300th rated beer for me, eh. I think I’ll have another beer.

Draught @ Papago. Floral and citrus hops on the nose get you in gear for a good refresment here. Dark body with good head and slight lacing. Flavor was full of citrus hop and this one for some reason I drank fast due to the citrus refreshment factor.

John’s Locker Series on tap @ Coles, Buffalo, NY. Dark brown in color with tannish head. Roasty with huge hop flavor. One of my more enjoyable Strong ales

Draught @ Grey Lodge. Dark brown/red with no head. Roasty, citrus-hop aroma. Taste is dark-roast malt with plenty of piney-citrus-woody hops. Heavy sweet-malt flavor. Flavor almost paralyzes the pallet. Nice!

On Tap at Bitter Creek in Boise Deep brown witha light tan head. Nice hoppy aroma that suggests of plenty if IBUs to follow. The suggestion was well founded. Quite strong bitter hoppy flavor as well with sufficient malt back bone. A bit dark and slightly roasted ina burnt wood sort of way. Gotta love a berr named after a guys dog!

On tap at Roman’s Pub in Milwaukee, served in a pint glass. The room wasn’t all that well lit, and the beer seemed black with an abundance of white head. The beer’s appearance led me to expect something significantly more malty (what I describe as that pleasing "burned pizza crust" flavor) than I got, but this beer’s opening flavors are definitely hops, which was unexpected. So, I was pleasantly surprised. As the beer warmed, the hop up front seemed to better balance with a nice back-of-the-mouth maltiness. Quite pleasant.