Rogue Mocha Porter

Brewed by Rogue Ales
Style: Porter
Newport, Oregon USA

Serve in English pint, Stem glass

Bottle at home. Dark brown in color. The nose is malt and chocolate. The coffee malt isn’t quite as distinguished as the chocolate malt. The malts dissipate off the palate and finishes as a light bodied porter.

Bottle ---> WIDE tulip glass. Appearance is dark and mysterious with a massive tan head, smooth lacing soon follows. The aroma is earthy (duh) with hints of cocoa and coffee. For a porter, the scent was unusually mellow, a lil smoky too. Flavors of light roasted coffee with a touch of hop bitterness are nice, and followed by undertones of dark chocolate and sweet malts. This wasn’t the best porter I’ve ever head, but a unique one with a different sweetness in it’s character.

I thought this was a bit tasteless given the name. The mocha was pretty hard to detect. I think the hops took the flavor over a bit more than I expected.

Figures all the top raters give this one high marks... not me, as it is definately not Lagerboy friendly! Love the pour, however... almost black with a reddish hue, big coffee coloured head with nice espresso, mocha aroma. But it’s more like a stout, too heavy, all bitter dark chocolate and coffee roasted dark malts, with no sweetness to balance it out. Just sayin’ is all. Not my thing.

Bottle @ home. Deep brown/black appearance with a big brown head with good brown lacing. Roasted dark malts, light espresso, light coffee in the nose. A little dark chocolate, slightly bitter coffee, dark roasty malty flavor. Fairly bitter finish.

Bottle into snifter. This one poured out a deep, dark brown , almost black in the glass body with a solid light brown head and sticky, clingy lacing. Aroma was all chocolate and some sweetness and a touch of alcohol in the distance. Taste was great, with a creamy, velvety texture and light carbonation. Roasted malts, coffee, and chocolate were all in the mix with a surprisingly bitter finish from the hops. Pretty good amount of hops. Light feel to this beer, almost watery from the texture. Semi-dry finish. Very drinkable.

355ml bottle. Pours very dark brown with a medium frothy head. Aroma is milk chocolate and a little bitter raisin. Taste is a bit watery to start with a watery, strong bitter coffee finish.

Fairly disappointing beer from Rogue. The normal Rogue yeasty sweetness is absent in a brew that direly needs it. Very dry, very bitter, yet with a hyperactive feel that quickly brushes away any chance of a deep, dark porter developing. No longer looking forward to doubling up this beer.