Had no tastings to do for da boss for a while and then at
the last minute he plonks 9 beers on me to try, all in one evening and a test
match night as well. I’ll quickly review
the beers so then I can relax and watch some Prime time rugby. Man, hard making a living these days!
The beers are all from an American brewery going by the name
of Rogue which was one of the earliest craft breweries to establish themselves way
back in 1988 starting from a bunch of home brewing mates. The head brewer, John “more hops” Maier, has a
caricature of himself on many of the different beer bottle labels and sports a
distinct beard that is not at all dissimilar to our own illustrious Grocer’s beard.
Okey dokey, that’s enough about rogues and more about the Rogues.
‘Brutal I.P.A.’ Don’t
drink this one out of the bottle as you won’t get the stupendous aroma of hoppy
tangerines that intensifies the flavour taste experience from this malty award
winning brew. The hops are there alright, (man, love those American hops) but
maybe not as much as the name might suggest. A Very well balanced full bodied IPA.
‘Dad’s Little Helper Black IPA’. I’m a big fan of black IPAs and this doesn’t
disappoint. Long story short behind the
strange name of this brew boils down to the naming of Father’s Day. Big aroma of hops, dark full body with big
white head, and an intense hop flavour with lingering bitter butterscotch that
keeps on going. So with Father’s day
coming up shortly, this brew might be the bomb! (hint, hint, my good Mrs).
‘Yellow Snow IPA’. Made for the Salt Lake City winter Olympics in
2000 this brew has a hazy clarity, medium body and a citrusy aroma, and man,
there is hops all the way through it. Bitter till the end and then some. Just the way I like it!
‘Chatoe Rogue Oregasmic Ale’. The Rogue guys made this with their own home
grown hops and barley which you would think should make this brew cheaper, but
isn’t! None the less, a fruity aroma
with a good amount of hoppy flavour, malty background and good body. Excellent ale and maybe the pick of the night?
‘Juniper Pale Ale’, I’ve no idea what juniper berries taste
like but this brew has a uniqueness about it that is very drinkable. Big on effervescence and a good hop flavour
coming through with those unusual juniper berries. After the whole bottle I still could not come
up with a taste description that would do this brew justice so I’ll leave it up
to you: suffice to say that it was world beer champion in 2010 and 2011. (I wonder if the world beer championships have
the same rankings as the world baseball champs i.e., only American
competitors?)
Chipotle Ale. A
chipotle is a smoked chilli pepper from Mexico and definitely makes this fellow
a spicy little number. A beautiful clear
reddish colour with malt and hop aromas and quickly dissipating head. The peppers almost give a medicinal taste to
the brew and may be off-putting if you’re not used to spicy brews; the resultant
heat gives a looong aftertaste. This
brew could be the go as the sun settles on the BBQ and the air starts to get
cooler?
‘Hazelnut Brown Nectar’. This brew is just like drinking pecan pie from
a bottle. A real nutty caramelly aroma
with this brew and has strong tastes of chocolate hazelnuts that are very
pleasant and quite sweet. Definitely a
dessert beer with such a richness that you only need one.
The ‘Voodoo Doughnut’ a bacon maple ale. Sounds mental and tastes mental. This brew is so far off the planet that it’s
tipped off the edge of the universe. With
a pink spray painted bottle and wacky flavour combo’s you’re better to leave
the shop with this bottle in a brown paper bag. Personally, to save the embarrassment of
carrying a pink bottle, I would have painted this Rogue red. Easily identifiable smoky bacon flavour with a
sweet maple finish. This could be a
breakfast drink but with 6.5% Abv you’d need a pool and deckchair to cope with
the rest of the day.
‘Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale’. Big frothy head and dark clarity. Some complexity here, with a variety of malts
and hops used in the making resulting in a crisp hop note with lingering
chocolate vanilla nut malt flavours. A
lower 5.3%Abv it could be a good second half beer.
Apart from the crazy pink one, all these Rogues live up to
the brewmeister’s middle name having a big hop character which I’m a fan of, so
for this rogue there are no rogue Rogues and everyone a gem. Now I can get on
with that other R word, rugby!
Denis “no relation to Quaid” Cooper
No comments:
Post a Comment