Of Brews And Beauty, Part 1 (Rogue Tasting)

So, you should know, several members of my immediate family, and myself, love beer. We try a lot of beers, from a lot of different countries and a lot of different micro-breweries here in the United States.

Last month, several members of the family took trips, one to the Oregon Coast, one down to Boise for the Rise Against concert. Both groups brought back new beers for us to taste. This is what their trips yielded...

{note: we tried a lot of beers last month, so I am going to break this up into a couple of posts, as my attention span wanes ;) }

Toby's Rating System:
0 = Nasty (undrinkable, there has only been one beer that ever got this from me)
1 = Ugh (I wouldn't buy it unless it was 1:59 AM and it was all I could afford in the store)
2 = Okay (If it is on sale and that is all I have in my pocket, I will pull the trigger)
3 = Good (I will buy a six-pack or drink a few at the bar, good but not top of the pops...)
4 = Very Good (Yeah, I might hunt this down and drink a little too much of it. Or a lot.)
5 = Favorites (If this were a woman, I would make sweet love to it)

Voodoo Bacon Maple Ale
by Rogue Brewery, Oregon
Uh, this beer was awesome. If you have never had the pleasure of eating a doughnut from Portland's Voodoo Donuts, then you have missed out, they make some of the best doughnuts in the country, and their maple bacon doughnut is one of their best. This beer does the namesake worthy! It is delicious. So delicious, in fact, that everybody who sampled the beer loved it, even the non-beer drinkers and mainstream lager lovers. This brown ale is very carbonated and has a very strong maple flavor. Not really a party beer, this is a very sweet beer (something normally I myself am not fond of, but this was a definite exception) suited as a companion for a meal, especially a breakfast with pastries and pork sausages.

Rating: 4 

Chipotle Ale
by Rogue Brewery, Oregon
This one got some mixed reactions from the crowd. The claim for it, on the website, is "eye-opening chile flavor". Of the two bottles we drank, we really didn't get that experience at all. The pepper flavor in this golden ale was very tame, barely noticeable actually, especially in the upper two-thirds of the bottle. Now, this isn't to say it was a bad beer, it had a nice crisp flavor, and is an excellent beer for your next bbq and/or summer event, but if you are looking for a serious kick and some strong pepper flavors, then you are likely going to be disappointed

Rating: 3

Chocolate Stout 
by Rogue Brewery, Oregon
Love. My personal tastes tend to lean towards beers that are dark and full of flavor. This one fits the bill perfectly, and the other "real" beer lovers in the family agreed. This beer has won a mountain of awards, and there is a very good reason for that. It is dark, it is chocolatey, and it has a somewhat bitter finish, and it is one of the best beers I have ever put my lips to. This is a beer you pour yourself a nice, frothy-headed glass too while chomping down on a big fat steak or a juicy burger.

Rating: 5

Mogul Madness Ale 
by Rogue Brewery Oregon
This one, a darker ale, sure is pretty, a dark burgundy in color. The flavor is complex with strong citrus and hints of berries and mocha. It was a surprise when we passed it around because several of the women in the group who are not micro-beer drinkers really enjoyed this one. This is your beer to drink with a nice spicy Thai food or with a chicken meal, almost like a fine red wine. Strange, when you look up at these four beers how each of them play off well with the different food styles, a pretty fair range of examples that when together in your beer collection, can pretty much compliment any meal or occasion you are thinking of.

Rating: 3

****

Alright, well, that takes care of our samplings from the Rogue Brewery, but that is by no means close to all the beers we sampled in April. But I got other stuff to write about, so, we will continue part 2 of this very soon, okay?

Bye for now...

TJK