Rogue FestiveAle

Brewed by Rogue Ales
Style: Saison
Newport, Oregon USA

Serve in Tulip

Being in Nashville gives me ample opportunity to rate Rogue beers, since it seems they have the whole catalog (if only that same variety applied to other breweries as well). Bomber into Duvel tulip. Almost perfectly clear in the glass. Color is uninventive orange (you could quality check orange crayons with this stuff), topped by a peachish white and fluffy head that starts medium-large and settles to a denser 1/4" layer. Produces an incredibly uniform, sticky sheet of glittering lace. Visible carbonation streams up the center in a column. Looks much like a tripel, and a yummy one at that. Smells like some funky socks and sourdough on the malts, bitter oranges and champagne. Good body; tripelish on the swallow, but also mealy. Grain sweetness in the middle is like "bready sugar," if that makes any sense; malts accented by a sharpness of acid and carbonation carrying peppery and somewhat piney flavors. Finish is fatty, blandly spiced, and like dark pine without the freshness. This is a Horace Grant type beer: very solid, mid-level exception type addition to a championship roster, that does some things well but lacks an all-around game, and with a ceiling on its ultimate quality.

Notes from an old HWOH tasting. Pours a cloudy light golden, murky with yeast sediment and a wierd chill haze, and a fizzy yellow head which doesnt last too long. Aroma is funky, yeasty, farmhouse, but also smelly dirty feet and light rotten eggs-sulfur like. Flavor is yeasty, lgiht bread, herbal, spicy, and more wierd unpleasant funkiness. Aftertaste and mouthfeel is a bit harsh and prickly. A rare miss from Rogue.

Bottled. Pours golden yellow with a LOT of head. Medium bodied with a sweet fruity taste to it. Rogue beers are great and this was no disappointment.

On tap at the Rogue Public House in San Francisco. Orange haze with a white head. Spicy ginger and orange aroma. Hops are mild and overpowered. A little on the thin and fizzy side with not enough malt to balance the ginger.

04.06.06 Bomber. Glowing golden-orange color beneath a lofty white head that lasts and lasts. Aromas are heavily laden with a mix of savory spices, mulch, and a fruit bowl that’s spent too much time on the counter. Not a great mix. The flavor gets past that smelly aroma in a hurry, making way for a big spicy kick with a wild mix of savory spices, some mint, and sage. Something on the burning side of the spice spectrum irritates, heartburn is coming, I think it’s ginger. The beeriness of this saison never gets a chance to expose itself as the spicy and rotty adjuncts dominate throughout. Not a good saison, but maybe after a year or so....too bad I only bought one. The finish is dry and cleans up nicely.

UPDATED: JUL 21, 2006 Original rating 04/06/06   Pours a cloudy golden/copper wtih a creamy, off-white head that lasts. (Later pours reveal a density that makes me wish I would have swirled it sooner.) Intermittent pricks of carbonation burst the surface like bugs on a pond. First aromas are almost adjuncty, despite the list of 8 ingredients displayed so prominently on the bottle. I could swear I find corn underneath sulfur, banana & dusty spicing... all-in-all like an off-Hefe. Alcohol overtakes as it warms and aromas mellow to spiced, milky banana. Thin, malty sweetness starts the flavor with yeasty fruitiness behind. Spices join in adding a lift to the finish, but yeasts most assuredly dominate. 04/04/06/03/12=2.9

Re-rate 07/21/06    It may be the snifter I poured it in or it may be a healthier batch, but the Belgian character really shows through today. No longer adjunct-laden, the aromas procure the festive spicing and sharp yeasts that were intended to be here. Flavor is highly complimentary. (Adjustments: Aroma +3; Flavor +1; Overall +4 = 3.7)

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22 ounce bottle – poured into a snifter glass. It is a cloudy orange with a large 1.5 inch creamy white head. The head was slow to dissipate and settled in at about a ¼ of an inch. I tried to get an aroma out of the glass, but I just got an astringent aroma. The carbonation is incredible and in my opinion way over done. I’m going to pause now and let this warm up. It’s already at 45 degrees, but I think it needs to be warmer… O.K. that didn’t work. It got worse. Not a good brew by Rogue. Shockingly surprising in a bad way.

Very yeasty, hazy appearence. Very good head. Flavors were too all over the place. Not a bad saison but I expected a lot from Rogue