Rogue FestiveAle

Brewed by Rogue Ales
Style: Saison
Newport, Oregon USA

I thought it was a classy, rich flavored, well crafted, distinquished tasting brew, with a nice rich frothy head, and I’ve had enough Belgian types of ale to feel comfortable in asserting that it is in the ballpark flavorwise with those ales. Also, my wife enjoyed it too, which is a surprise, because she’s usually one of those typical lite beer weight-watching types. Definitely I intend to be a repeat customer on this one. Rogue brewing does not appear to be trying to be traditional, in my opinion they always put their own spin on existing types, or create new types, and do a pretty good job at that.

Bold and flavorful. Hoilday spices yet doesnt totally feel like a holiday beer. Beautiful bouqet of aroma and taste. With so many malts and hops used in this beer, its no wonder its so distinct.

Bottle. Hazy golden color, white head. Sweet spicy aroma. Well balanced flavor, nice finish. Excellent beer. Why the low rating? This was good stuff.

Deep golden glow with slow bubbliness rising within. Tall inch cap of soft whitish fluffy foam keeps for a bit, fading to a hold a solid skimming cap of foam and sturdy collaring built along the sides. Loafy, lazy lacing creeps back down leaving a pattern of spots and globs. Aroma of high ended grasses and dried herbs make the forefront with a slight sweet pale malt backing and a spritz of orange peel zest. Taste is snappy, yet calm with an active body of lightly enhanced flavors of herbs and grasses. Saaz hops make up a good portion of the dryness that takes place along the sweetened pale malt backing. Which stays nicely behind as it pokes through in areas where needed. Nice subtle entry of the herbal and grassy things are delicately woven and placed along the entire palate. Interestingly flavored. Finish is herbal dry with notes of Saaz hop leafyness and grassyness. Narry a bitterness to it really, mostly dry and grassy with a mild disposition about its character. Steady, firm, and close to medium in body with a clean, dryish carbonation. Perfect sweet and paled malt balance and backing to its overall dry herbalness. An accommodatingly fair drinker too. Sits well and balanced with a fairly smooth tender snap. Finish has a very lovely air about it that carries orange peel and grains of Paradise very late in a slight Saaz hop drying heat in the back of the throat. Kinda nice actually. Another Rogue solid brewed ale; or Saison, or whatever it is.

Wow. I was adventitiously surprised by this one. I stopped off at the Rogue brewery after visiting my uncle and cousin in Portland, and I ordered this by bottle since it was out on tap. Hands down, it’s the best, creative, US-made excursion into Belgian territory I’ve sampled. Despite its complex ingredients (ginger and orange?!), it simply works, automagically (sic). Top-grade effervescence, generally successful creative blending of spices, and all around scintillating. (If you have distributed sediment, by the way, you haven’t let it rest long enough before serving--you can’t drink this with the bottle conditioning additives diffusely dispersed throughout the beer. That changes the flavor completely, as it does with any bottle conditioned ale. Try again, if this happened.)

22 oz.:Hazy and murky orange ale with a spritzy crackle snapping white foam. Orange sherbet and roses on the nose with a mace/all spice/cinnamon compedium in the background, flavor is slightly sour/medicinal at first then is very nicely quenching and quinine like, interesting fruity flavor, apricots and cranberries or something, pommegranate even,backed up with with juicy malt and drying alcohol. I’d also note that the bottle doesn’t list wheat malt as an ingredient, and instead of sweet gale it says myrtle leaves...same thing??? I do believe that this bottled version is a different recipe from previous attempts...

Bottled version. Aroma is moderately yeasty with a cheesy smell and just a faint hint of hops. Sour and bready flavor with a bit of floral hops. It’s tangy and bitter throughou. Delicious.

22 oz Bottle. Deep red pour became light cloudy orange once the yeast sediment was added. Fruity, barnyard aroma very characteristic for a saison. In fact, the smell was to me exactly how you would expect something extremely fresh and clean (spring water) to smell. It was very pleasing and relaxing and I really enjoyed it. Flavor was much more subdued though still had the nice funky and fruity flavors you’d expect in a saison. This was a very nice brew; I’m surprised it’s rated so low.