Rogue FestiveAle

Brewed by Rogue Ales
Style: Saison
Newport, Oregon USA

Serve in Tulip

22 oz. bottle. Poured in a stemmed tulip, it’s orange and gold, like a Belgian golden ale with a blush in the middle, nice tight matching head. Smell is yeasty from a distance, but in close I can catch a few of those spices. Taste brings out some heavier malts, like a grainier dubbel. Then some orange and yes, a touch of ginger. That is in addition to a general ale fruitiness. Carbonation is little hard, though I know that’s par for the style, and the sludge at the bottom assures me this was bottle conditioned. Light noble hop load keeps the close to the traditional saison instead of going for something big in the usual Rogue manner.

The aroma is very nice and it pours a dark brown color that is very nice. Head is limited if poured right. Mouthfeel is nice and smooth and flavor is not bad with a lot of hops and spices included to make an interesting brew.

Bottle. Poured orange with a large head. Aroma of fruits, citrus, oranges, apples maybe. Flavor is smooth and a bit watery with some fruit. Apples. Not one of Rogue’s better beers.

Fruits, spices, and belgian yeasts domnate the aroma, the head is thick , white and persistent. It appears turbid, whic is to say not really hazy, just opaque turbid. Spice/herabceousness dominates the beer . Not sure if i would repeat, but i wouldn’t refuse it.

Hazy deep amber beer, topped by a good inch of cream-colored sudsy foam. Scant lacing. Good head retention. Aroma is lightly spicy, lightly hoppy, and carries a good bit of yeast - but smells more like a strong American pale wheat than a saison. The beer is quite dry and tart - with spicy hops, green unripe peach, and citrus bitterness. I taste lots of chlorophyl. And even more quinine water. Medium body, plenty of fizzy metallic carbonation, unpleasant bitter aftertaste.

UPDATED: FEB 24, 2007 22oz. Bottle. Thanks to Styles. Poured a murkey golden color with a thre finger white head. Aroma of wheat and citrus is very present. The taste is dry almost like a scotch.

UPDATED: OCT 14, 2007 Rogue is one of those breweries that always gets mild interest and a finger pointed at it on the liquor store shelf, but is bypassed for something else more alluring, seasonal or rare. I suppose that’s because I never hear anything remarkable about it. Also because Rogue Ales has an unhealthy addiction to eponyms and changing identities that would humble Mossad or the CIA. It’s lucky then that they came out with a few seasonal offerings, such as the FestiveAle. That beer’s temporal existence caught my attention, and as I looked the bottle over I could feel the sands of time slipping through my fingers. It was a seasonal, after all, and only had so long before it would eventually fade from the shelf. I’d be forced to wait another agonizing 12 months! My eyes darted back and forth. I bit my lip. Pressure was mounting. Sweat began to form on my brow. I felt like I could hear every creaky cart in the whole store. A minute passed, and a clock on the wall made a large, booming “TOCK!”. Hourglasses danced in the air, and for a moment I thought the Grim Reaper looked over my shoulder and gave the ale a thumbs up. SOLD! I couldn’t afford to waste another second. For all I knew I just purchased a bottle of drain run-off. But it didn’t matter. It was SEASONAL. In the end the choice wasn’t so bad. As far as Rogue’s winter offerings go, it was vastly more interesting than Santa’s Private Secret Forbidden (and boring) Reserve. Like many other Saisons the head was gargantuan, billowing up with pride and yielding only with time and patience. As it receded back to the pool of beer from which it came it left its mark on the sides of the glass, thick and heavy, as if with an elegiac regret for its short life span. Pity. The body was the color of orange jam, alluding to some sweeter dimensions to come. The smell had a bit of sour asperity to it, complemented with a piercing yeast smell, honey, peaches, orange and even a bit of lemon. The flavor is a bit flat, beginning with a couple of bland, tasteless paces, then takes on some yeasty bubbliness, and finally slides into a prolonged bout of bread flavors and what I was surprised to find was Italian seasonings. The aftertaste is like chomping into a loaf of heavily seasoned Italian bread. And weirdest of all, it fit in nicely. After the sumptuous and savory grains go away there’s nothing left. It opens with a blank palate, and ends in the same vacuum. The cold greeting and departure leave this beer a little chilly, and one I’d not soon welcome into an inner sanctum of beer-directed compassion. Without the energy that makes for truly celebratory beer I’d recommend not bringing out a bottle for this when you think a party is at hand. This is much more appropriate for drinking in loneliness on a cold dock, or maybe for sipping in an abandoned warehouse. Good enough to drink, but too sterile to care for.

Pours a cloudy peach color with a moderate, bubbly white head. Aroma is sort of sour, with hints of apple and white grape fruitiness. The flavor is drier than expected and a tad tangy, with a yeasty backdrop. Mouthfeel is foamy and slightly sticky. The flavor turns drier toward the finish, and leaves a strange sort of clean/tart aftertaste behind. There’s not a lot to this beer, but it’s not bad.