Beer Review: Rogue – John John Ale
Mar0
A Pacific Northwest beer in Dallas
Type of beer: Ale
Wallet thinning factor: $7ish (might have forgotten this detail)
Warm and fuzzy factor: 6.4%
Volume: 1 pint 6 oz
*Hello…* Helllloooooo????? Is anyone still out there????
You might have noticed that there hasn’t been a recent review. That is because there hasn’t been any beer in the world. At all. No really, didn’t you hear about that? Obama got involved and everything.
Whew. Good thing there is beer in the world again.
This beer actually has a story behind it. It is named after the spirits and brew masters at Rogue. Additionally, it was actually brewed with hazelnut flavor in… get this… HAZELNUT SPICE RUM BARRELS. How could you go wrong?
I decided to get back on the bandwagon with this John John Ale. I have had this beer before, and I loved it then, and still love it now. At our wedding, we had the “normal” version of this beer (Hazelnut Brown). The beer pours a golden-amber color. It looks and smells delicious. It has just a slight hazelnut taste that isn’t over-powering, just enough to remind you that it is there.
This beer is perfect after the kind of day that I had… Got up early, did a couple hours of yard work, then errands, and then squats, press, and cardio at the gym.
As the beer warms up, it takes on a bit of a honey taste that is just sweet enough.
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Beer Review: Rogue – Dirtoir Black Lager
Apr0
Amount of brew in bottle: 22 fluid ounces
ABV: ~6%
Type of brew: Black Lager
Price: ~$7
This is our first, first growth beer by Rogue. We (I say we because me and wifey are reviewing this beer together) usually don’t like lagers but this one is mighty delicious. It pours dark and fairly thick for a lager. The beer tastes smokey but it is still light and refreshing. At least up here in Washington this beer can be found at most decent beer stores. Personally I picked this up at Rogue’s brewpub when we dropped off the kegs from our recent wedding. If you are ever in Issaquah I would strongly suggest going to the Issaquah brewpub it is awesome and can be rather devastating to your pocketbook 
. The beer did pour with a thin brown head and it almost seemed like a stout but tastes completely different.
The beer is rather enjoyable and I could see it being quite good on a warm day. See, we have to think about these things as we are moving to Dallas. Which means hotter than shit weather and less tasty beer than up here in Washington.
The good: A great light lager
The bad: Umm….
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Beer Review: MoM Hefeweizen – Rogue
May0
A fine beer for Mom!
I don’t usually drink hefeweizens so this beer is a departure from my normal stout, porter, lager, IPA mix. The pertinent stats:
Amount of brew in bottle: 22 fluid ounces
ABV: 4.8%
Type of brew: hefeweizen (the rogue site also states it is belgian style)
Price: ~$5
This beer doesn’t have the normal sweet, heavy taste that I associate with hefeweizens. When I first poured this beer I noticed that it was very bubbly and the smell reminded me of Henry Weinhards private reserve. Which seemed weird to me since Henry’s is a pilsner and this is not. Anyways it doesn’t taste like a pilsner which is good and it is a very easy to drink beer and I would look to have this by my side when I am eating some super spicy chicken wings or after a good long bicycle ride. It isn’t too bitter nor is it that sweet it is just right and I could see this being an awesome session beer. It has some distinctive tastes that won’t make this beer boring but it is not some huge monster of a beer. One question I had going into this beer is; would I give my Mom this beer? The answer is positively yes! This is also one beer I would prefer cold instead of trying to warm it up to 55 degrees like many of the other beers I drink.
Overall this beer was a nice change and as it gets hotter here in Seattle I am going to have to keep a few of these in stock for when I BBQ (which is damn often).
The good: easy to drink beer
The bad: too easy to chug (ok maybe that isn’t always a bad thing)
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Rogue – Mocha Porter
Feb0
Ahh… the memories that I have drinking Rogue brews. When I lived in Issaquah there was a Rogue brewpub half a mile away from my apartment, it was awesome! Bummer I didn’t appreciate beer as much as I do now. Because of these past experiences Rogue is one of my stand-by breweries when I can’t find anything different or I just want something that I know is good. But enough reminiscing, down to business.
Today, I will be reviewing Rogue’s Mocha Porter. You can find this beer in most decent grocery stores in the Washington area and is good if you want a smoother porter. There is a hint of bitterness which comes from the toasted malts but overall it goes down very smoothly and has a slightly sweet smell.
Because this is a porter it doesn’t have much alcohol in it which makes it great to drink during the week. I ate some chili with this beer and the two items were a great pairing as the beer counter-acted the spiciness in the chili. This beer is a great beer and I would probably bring it to a BBQ or some other social function, however, it is not something that I would save for a special occasion.
The Good: Smooth finish, easy to drink, the beer is abundant
The Bad: The beer is pretty common (yes that is all I can come up with, that tells you something!)
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Rogue – Old Crustacean
Dec0
Today I am drinking the Old Crustacean from Rogue brewery. The Old Crustacean is actually a barely wine and not a beer but it is in the same category and is usually sold in the same area so it works out . This current bottle was actually produced in 1998 so it is 10 years old which is a first for me. I poured the drink into a glass and it came out smoothly and had a red tint to it. Drinking it is rather smooth but had a hint of bitterness to it. On the bottle it says that it rates at 120 IBU I would imagine that having aged for 10 years it has mellowed out the drink quite a bit.
Over all it has a sharp but earthy flavor to it and it isn’t as “alcoholy” as other barely wines that I have had. Since I can’t compare this Old Crustacean to newer vintages I am going to take a stab in a dark and say that the years have over all mellowed this barely wine so it is more approachable. As a disclaimer I tend not to like barely wines even though I try them every few months to see if my tastes have changed at all and it usually ends in the same result, “blah, I can barely drink this.” So, for me to say that this bottle is approachable should carry a little bit of weight to it .
As a summary:
Good: Very approachable barely wine at a decent price, that is if you can find one that has been aged for 9-10 years . It is smooth with a hint of bitterness and some earthy tones along with small hints of sweetness.
Bad: Hard to find but over all not too much bad to say about it.
Note: I bought this bottle at bottleworks on 45th Ave in Seattle. They had a few other bottles there so if you want to try it I would suggest going there.