Rogue FestiveAle

Brewed by Rogue Ales
Style: Saison
Newport, Oregon USA

Serve in Tulip

Funny, my bottle doesn’t have the "e" in FestiveAle ... it says FestivAle. Anyway .. This muddy but bright orange brew poured with a massive tower of white, rocky foam to top it off. A nice authentic Saison-y aroma penetrates the head ... that musty yeast and sweetness. This has an interestingly complex flavor .. kinda like orange kool-aid, mostly. Extremely effervescent on the tongue, and finishes with a sweet-tart tanginess. It’s good, but kinda off-centered in some way.

Bottle. Orange golden color with a thick off-white head. Spicy aroma, with orange peel, I can pick out hints of saaz. Somewhat on the heavy side for the style, very sweet, loads of yeast, vanilla and cream, occasional tartness. Resembles a tripel more than a saison. Good but not quite up to par with some other saisons.

Beer is a clear medium amber with a huge, frothy, off-white, mostly and rapidly diminishing head. Residuals look like particulates on the surface. Big first impression on the nose! It smells like buttery (not buttery in the DMS way, but in the creamy way), decadent pastries! Count me in! The aroma is malty with light notes of toasted grain, buttery shortbread cookie, pound cake; Hoppy with a moderate herbal note;Yeasty with heavy notes of sourdough bread dough; Miscellaneous notes of moderate green apple, sage, oregano, orange zest, tamed pineapple, spicy alcohol, perhaps a trace of cinnamon. The flavor is moderately sweet, moderately bitter/dry, lightly acidic with an average-length lightly bittersweet, moderately warm finish. The body is medium, the texture is velvety and the carbonation is lively. In the end, it’s a bit dark in appearance and missing a lot of the funk of it’s Belgian-born cousins, but still fairly compelling and yummy.

Cloudy golden color with thin white head. Aroma is of sugar and fruit. High carbonation brings about a fruity, spicy and sour flavor. The sourness gets to be just too much.

Sampled on draft at Rogue Public House, Portland. Pours clear copper with a collared white head. Aroma is mild malt and bubble gum. Balanced cotton candy flavor. Pretty one-dimensional and a somewhat under-attenuated. Medium-full body with moderate carbonation. Not the best saison, but still a good beer.

Dull gold murky appearance – sour green apple, cloves, lemon nose-taste sour, hay/grass, solvent - mouth feel creamy and sparkly aftertaste little acidic citrus taste

Found this bottle (in June) hiding in a bottleshop in Monterey. Definitely a different saison style as you can really taste the spices. But that actually put my off to the ale a bit as I think the spices took away from the delicate/light flavors that a saison style ale. Still enjoyable on a hot day.

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