Rogue Imperial Red

Beautiful deep copper color with a tan head. Nice light roasty malt and bread aromas. Medium body. Bittersweet floral and piney hop flavors on a caramel malt base. Nicely bitter finish.

The aroma is caramel, citrus hops, booze, soap. The appearance is a pale red (not a deep red!), the flavor is some caramel, soap, thin and weak. Not great, but not objectionable. The finish is citrusy hops. OK, not great.

In short: Tasty fudge clashes with fruity resinous hops in this big alcoholised and hoppy sort-of-brown-ale on steroids. Tasty but not cohesive. Decent brew.
How: Bottle 750ml (flip-top ceramic bottle). Consumed relatively fresh about 3 months after purchase
The look: Cloudy amber body topped by a medium beige head
In long: Nose of bakery and hops resin. That beer’s got malts, and a lot of it. Upfront is a lot of fudge on a baguette bread crust. The beer is also rather nutty and a bit buttery giving a slight peanut butter sensation. The beer is also very hoppy with a citrusy and resinous signature and a short but strong bitterness. Alcohol is not well hidden at all. Imho a dryer foresty hops signature could have been a killer with this malt profile. Each element by itself was very good but unfortunately imho it was the wrong hopping for the malt profile or vice-versa. These two were as well assorted as a my a hard-core feminist and her integrist muslin boyfriend.

Bottle. Poured a nice red body with thin head. aroma is sweet malt and hops. Flavor is a tad of hops with a nice malty back taste. Smooth for the alcohol %.

deep copper thin tan head. a bit of spice sweet and alc burn. enough hop to round it out. for the amoumt of alc it is very drinkable. very good.

Draught at Stockholm Beer Festival 2008. Reddish amber color. Toffeish, nutty and lemony aroma with grassy hops. Bittersweet and hoppy flavor with lemon, toffee and nuts. Very hoppy but fairly malty also. Soft palate, a real pleasure to drink.

In a flight of strong rogue beers, this one was by and large the abosolute worst. I don’t even know exactally what is going on here, but I’m certinally not excited about it. This looks nice, it’s got a good head and lace and it is a very pretty red color. The flavor is odd and tea like, very malt forward and sort of sweet. It is no less fairly well balanced. Flavors of butter and some fruitiness shine through the weirdness only to create more weirdness. The mouthfeel is nice sort of silky. I sort of want to try it again, this is kind of a bizarre beer.

Draught at The Brickskeller. Orange=red with a creamy head that leaves good lace. Floral, friuity aroma with some caramel and cracker. A bit fat and buttery flavor, with asweet caramel and butterscotch and indistinct hops that almost balance. Big bodied and a bit slick. Not really as hoppy as I was expecting, but this one just hangs on.