Rogue FestiveAle

Brewed by Rogue Ales
Style: Saison
Newport, Oregon USA

Aroma is very chalky with a mild spice. Flavor is mild dry, slight apple, chalk, mild hay. Drinkable but the odd dryness bugs me.

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.

The 22 ounce bottle poured a bright orange apricot colored hazy beverage with a very large off-white creamy head that was mostly lasting once it settled down and it left good lacing on the glass. The aroma started off presenting my senses with notes of sour fruit and dust. The body was quite full with lively carbonation and the texture was smooth and creamy. The flavor presents a decided sourness with a shy, almost timid sweetness lurking the background. The finish is long with an alcohol warmth accompanied by a respectable bitterness and the sourness hangs on all the way to the end as well.

I am surpised this is rated so low. Very complex taste of fruit and malt. The taste begins sweet and is followed by a citrus flavor and lightly bitter finish. Although slightly bitter, ther is not much hop character. Not the usual beer.

Bottle 22 ounce did not like cloudy and not my type of style,too fruity and spicy for me.CHEERS!

22oz bottle. Pours an orange hue...Marshmello head dies after a short show...lively carbonation...Aromas of earth, flower petals, pepper...a very weird mix...rustic? a bit of rubber or plastic...certainly nothing pleasant. Drinks with more of the same, and a long lingering bitterness that seems to be alcoholic hot. Something of a chewy earthiness to this, but not in a good way. I just don’t like this. I guess my first impression was right..."Rogue...a saison? why?" the bottle says a "delightfully pleasant Belgian-style saison" Well, I’m not delighted and I can’t think of a Belgian Saison that tastes like this...aargh...the most remarkable thing about this beer is the yeast slurry caked into the bottom of the bottle...its gotta be a good 2oz of solid yeast down there!

Poured a nice honey color with a large short lived head. All I can say about the aroma is it was "clean" tho non descript .Maybe a hint of dryer sheet. It was fairly bland with some subtle citrus/flower petal taste. Was expecting much more.

Pours a amber colour with a white head. lacing is good, but what does that matter these days eh? Taste was sour/bitter honey and citrus. Bland saison at best, this was not what I had expected.