Rogue Brewer

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

2006 version, draught at Barley’s in Knoxville. Pours a very dark garnet with fast-receding khaki head. The aroma is sweet chocolate, grapefruit, orange, pine, and some sweet wood notes. The first sip is like taking a bite of grapefruit, but the hop profile kind of evolves in the mouth, and is more piney by the finish. Otherwise there is some baker’s chocolate, toasty malts, a very faint coffee note, and some occasional earthiness. The finish is warm and bitter. Decent brew, if a bit aggressive.

Dark, hazy brown.. tan lacing... rich malt and pine aroma. Very malty, rich, with an impressive bitter finish. Pretty good.

A unique tribute to a special boy, indeed! Had this beer a the 2006 OBF. By far the top beer at the entire fest. Solid dark brown toffee colored. Tastes like a refinded Old Crusty. Very heavy beer, With a complex hop bitterness and aroma mix. Bittering Hops include: Newport, Chinook, Horizon, Simcoe, Summit. Aroma Hops include: Summit, Amarillo, Centennial, German Saphire. ABV, 7.33 ; IBU 106.9; Plato, 17.6 John’s most memerable masterpiece.

I feel like I am in the smae boat as Clsark. I had a very malty but not pleasent taste. It also had a bad after taste. It was a little syurpy, that seems to be the best to describe it. It was ok but not really my favorite.

3/15 anniversary bottle shared with Eyedrinkale and Egajdzis on 8/27/2005. Huge thanks to Radiomgb for the bottle. Pours quite a dark, beige-copper, with some light strawberry-auburn tones, heavily sedimented and cloudy. Light tan head is small and only moderately well-retained. Few bubbles break to the surface, but the beer seems pretty lifeless, overall. Aroma is intensely dry, hoppy, rusty and bitter. Earthy, soily, dry hops, dry leaves and a touch of sourness it seems to forecast. Not much sweetness coming off of the aroma, perhaps a touch of oxidized notes. A bit bready-sweet, gingerbread and dry caramel. Flavor is almost syrupy sweet, but it’s a strange, bready, doughy, sherry like sweetness. Add to this a boatload of pure drying hops bitterness, with a severely lacking follow up in hops flavor. Carbonation is very low, giving it a very heavy body. Burning on the end, almost, with a dull, sweet caramel and bready astringency that is exacerbated by the nutty, dry bitter hops. Some oranges and light remants of resin. Body is seemingly quite full, but the flavors are just way too forceful, one dimensional and the body too dull and sluggish. I don’t know what to say. I’ve aged this bottle myself under proper conditions for the last 14 or so months. Sometimes it just dosent work out, I guess.
JLS draught at Redbones on 11/14/06
Surprsingly not much different than my previous rating. Way too punishing for me in aroma and flavor. Tons of IBUS, tons of acid. I’ll up the score a tad, but it’s still just another unbalanced hop-crazy ASA. Dark malt lends some light astringency and there is definitely plenty of breadiness and light oliiness.

Aged absolutely phenomenal. Big and burly. Hops still very evident. Easy drinking and stands up to any challenger. Solid all around.

Aroma is earthy hops and caramal malt. Flavor is fresh hops with a watery sweetness backing.

DC/MD/VA/WV/PA gathering. Deep hazy brown, rocky off white head. Fresh aromas of pine, spruce, grapefruit, caramel, brown sugar, with small notes of molasses. Very bitter and mostly unbalanced even with the malty sweetness on the back end. Hopheads will dig it. Full bodied, light to medium carbonation, drying bitter finish. This one should be made available all year. Great stuff....