Rogue Brewer

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

On tap at the brewkettle in Strongsville Ohio - Pours dark brown hazy with a pretty good sized offwhite head that stayed well and left lots of lacing. Good roasted malts, chocolate, and caramel in the nose, but there is also some raisin there too. Flavor is big and roasty with chocolate, caramel, and underlying flavors of toffee and raisins. Good body and a creamy mouthfeel. Finishes warm. This seems much more doppelbock to me than strong ale.. Either way it was tasty!

KSBF 2006 RB after party. Pours a hazy brown amber with a small off white head. Aroma of very fresh hops, citrus, I’m assuming they use Simcoe in this one. Also getting some caramel malt. Flavor of the same but almost a vegetable hop presence with a nice light hop bitterness.

Tasted from growler courtesy of Whaleman. Poured a dark brown with a small sized off white head. Hoppy aroma - pine, citrus, grapefruit, with some malts. Tastes of citrus, pine, caramel, chocolate and a little nutty.

On Tap at Rogue Brewer’s on The Bay Newport OR. pours out a red/brown topped with a nice tan head. Aroma is of hops. A very nice hop tast as well. Very good.

Draught at Cole’s in Buffalo, NY. Pours a murky dark brown with an average size diminishing tan head. Aroma: Wow, that’s hoppy! Some malt in the back but it’s all about the hops and I love it. Very fresh green hop taste and finish with some roasted malt backing it up -- a delicious hop bomb! Medium to full bodied, creamy mouthfeel. Definitely not your average "American Strong" (HOPPY!) but if you like this kind of thing, which I do, you’ll love it. Yowza!

Served on cask in a pint glass at the HDG in NYC. Poured dark chestnut with a thick tan head. Good creaminess and retention. Smell was great with hints of citrus, graitfruit, syrup, caramel, piney hops, pinapple and currant. Very similar to Arrogant Bastard in taste. I liked the pinapple, citrus, and syrup a lot, however the graitfruit put the taste a little out of whack for me. Full palate, the hops hit you in the face. I was very pleased with this and would like to try it on tap and out of the bottle to compare.

ON tap at Redlight Redlight. It was too dark in there to judge the color, but the head poured thick and creamy and stuck around for about 1/2 the glass. Aroma was of fresh green hops, citrusy and piney, molassas and coffee notes added roundness. Initial hop bitterness was green and grassy, giving way to a very malty finish. High ABV was unevident on the palate but identifiable in the throat. High hopping wrecked my palate and 12 hours later I am still burping the hop aromatics.

Draught. At Cole’s in Buffalo NY. Poured a very deep reddish-brown with an average mottled light brown bubbly/creamy head. Pungent green hop aroma, sweet generic roast malt peeking out from behind - I say generic because the hops kick ass in the aroma - it was roasty, maybe even a little lactic, but hard to pin down. The taste - oh yeah, green resiny fresh hops, solid and lasting, with some sweet roast chocolate malt and pine accents in the finish - bitter and even more bitter as it warmed - nice long finish, the roast fades long before the hops. Average ale body, but excellent carbonation and it was extremely astringent, with that long linger and finish - just a pint glass full of rich hoppy and somewhat roasty goodness - well done (not for the hop-faint of heart, though ...)