Rogue FestiveAle

Brewed by Rogue Ales
Style: Saison
Newport, Oregon USA

Serve in Tulip

Light color with some yeast and a big, bubbly head. Bready aroma. Taste is decent, but lacking that quality farmhouse taste that is present in most Saisons. I knocked off another point because Rogue should know better.

Pours a light orange cast with a frothy head/ Aroma is sweet and lightly spicy. Flavor is a littly yeasty with bubblegum like phenols, with a spritzy finish.

Bottle. Has a bockish aroma but is enhanced with an airy Belgian quality. Sweetness infiltrates the nose. Cloudy reddish orange body with streaming carbonation and a lasting quarter inch creamy, off-white head. Not much lace. FestiveAle doesn’t just enter your mouth, it invades it with its lively carbonation..initially. Dry and abrupt. Rogue hits some of the style characteristics nuts on and misses on others. True to the style, this brew has the foamy head, the citrusy character the high carbonation, the medium body and the medium ABV. However, the body lacks clarity. I’m willing to overlook this "mistake" as I prefer my ales cloudy as they should be. Loses some punch as it warms. I’m no Saison expert but a 9.7 percentile seems awfully low for this brew. The "bitter orange peel" is clearly evident, but not in a bad way. This brew is a little too dry to be balanced, and is therefore less interesting than it could be. However, after pouring in the dregs from the bottom of the bottle, the body gets a little more substance and the flavor rounds out even more. Truly not a bad beer.

Thick, bubbly head. Has a bright pumpkin color. Aroma of cotton candy, citrus, and light wheatiness. Flavor also contains a lot of cotton candy followed with a bit of bitterness at the end. A little sweet for my taste. Fizzy mouthfeel.

Bottle. Sweet and spicy nose with a grand note of warm Eggo waffles and maple syrup. Pine, flowers, herbs are all light, ginger and orange rind slightly higher in the mix. Orange-colored body, fizzing beige head, enormously volatile pour. Very spicy taste, semi-dry finish. Very yeasty with some dumpy slightly sour wheat and caramel notes common in Dunkelweizen, very light hops, and all notes expressed in the aroma. Muddled light bitterness. Spices are a little out of control. Touch of mineral water on the exit. Way out of balance, but not quite bad enough to be dumped.

I love Saisons, and not many American brewers make an attempt at capturing these flavorful brews. I have to admire Rogue’s attempt and it’s not all that bad. Cloudy appearance with a decently balanced malt/hop flavor. It lacks the complexity of Belgian Saisons, but the effort is there

Bottle. A hazed orange color with a big foamy off-white head. Orange, lemon and pepper flavors with a rich, thick full body. A medium spiced flavors. Rating from 2005 notes.

Rogue FestiveAle 22 oz bomber Unknown bottling, celebrated 11/06 Medium pour in a tulip glass. Poured a hazy orange copper with a large rocky off-white fully lasting with good lacing. Smelt of moderate oranges, bubble gum, cloves, and ginger. Taste was upfront moderate sweet candied ginger and oranges followed a strong awkward bitter sweaty yeast taste on an average length bitter tasteless affront. Mouthfeel was light to medium bodied, dry, lively carbonated with light to moderate astringency, mostly on the finish, and faint alcoholic burn. Overall, a very disappointing Rogue beer and saison beer, as the bitterness seems too strong and overwhelms the other flavors. Not a pleasant saison by any means. I’m so disappointed by Rogue right now, hopefully they will tweak their recipe. They are so ashame of this beer they don’t even have it listed on their website...