Rogue FestiveAle

Brewed by Rogue Ales
Style: Saison
Newport, Oregon USA

Serve in Tulip

What’s up spices. This beer is nothing more than a bottle full of harsh and astrigent spiciness. There is something left of what used to be a saison in here, but it is so masked and muddled with ginger and cinnamon, clove and a small malt component, and some yeasty biscuits.

22oz bottle poured into a wine glass. Too much carbonation right of the bat. It was somewhat flat by the time I could drink past the head. The aroma held a lovely melange of orange, gingerbread and spice leaving me somewhat hopeful for this saison. But.. when tasted it just didn’t seem to know what kind of beer it wanted to be (witness the range of ingredients). Certainly not a bad beer by any means. Just a confusing one. Mouth feel was a prickly pilsner, aroma was a spiced winter belgian, the colour hinted at saison... ultimately it was a misdirected drink that suffered from, among other things, the addition of far too much yeast.

Cloudy gold, short head, some lacing. Aroma is spices - like too many spices, it was too hard to pick anything good out of it. Body was somewhat thin, held up with a lively carbonation. Light malts mixed with a lot of spice - you could almost feel the spices like a sediment in the brew. It didn’t taste bad, it just turned into a muddle of ginger, citrus, corriander, etc.

One pint, 6 fl oz (650 mL) brown bottle purchased from Di Carlo Wine and Spirits (formerly Armanetti’s), Mundelein, IL. 6.8% ABV. 2005 vintage. Clear orange hued ale having a small diminishing white head with spare lacing. Soft carbonation. Interesting aroma of hops and sardines, the type that is packed in oil (not a bad smell at all). Medium bodied that starts dry with hop, coriander, orange peel, spice aromas. Finishes dry with no discernable aftertaste. A very good dry Belgium-style saison ale.

Murky orange pour with thin white head. Aroma is soapy and earthy. Flavor is bitter but not from hops. The ginger and other additives add to the bitterness and are quite odd with the Saison style. Not real crazy about this one.

(650 ml bottle at Oliver Twist, Stockholm) Very hazy orange colour with a big, sticky tan head. Mostly oranges in aroma with faint notes of lavendel, herbs and orange-peels. Flavour starts nice of mandarin and orange-peels but there is no aftertaste. A void of water, herbs and orange-fruit in the short aftertaste.

The beer poured from the 22-ounce brown bottle takes up a temporary residence in my glass an unclouded deep amber with a modest semi-creamy head that is a light tan color, after its decomposition the resultant lace forms a fine coating of lace to obscure the glass. Nose has a sweet malt presence with hints of pepper, oranges and some spiciness, start is tart with a light to moderate grain presence, top is light to middling in its feel. Finish is extremely dry, the acidity dominates with a light hint of hops, can’t say I care much for this beer, drinkable, but leaves a lot to the real saison style

Hazy pale amber pour that grows a nice belgian off-white head that slowly drops to a lasting cover. Astonishingly low level of hops (both aromatic and bittering) for what you’d expect from a saison by the brewer of the first double IPA. What comes up in the nose is mostly a spice intensity that fights off the fruity, nowhere crisp base malts. Lots of ginger, orange, chamomile leafiness. Soft herbal hops don’t procure no bitterness that approaches that coming from the spices. Tea-like chamomile sourced tannic feel lingers in the finish. Biting, large, tongue-grasping agressive carbonation lasts long, but is at a level where it may be cutting the flavors down a bit and toughens drinkability a bit which comes as a default in this case. Under average.