Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale

Brewed by Rogue Ales
Style: Specialty Grain
Newport, Oregon USA

Bottle. Golden beer with an off-white head. Light toasty, light citrus aroma. Wheaty, toasty, biscuity flavor with lemon and spice. Medium bodied. Biscuit flavor lingers with spice and possibly some vanilla. Different.

Hmmm....Not too many flaws, but pretty similar in profile to a pale lager. Big head, dry finish, and no flaws at the end, but I am not getting the nuts that everyone gets. Quite light...I keep wanting to say that it is not any different from a Heineken, but actually it is...more sophisticated, more refined. Rouge does have better beer, but on a hot summer day doing yard work, this would be good. Thanks to Michael Lelevier for bringing this from NM to Panama.

I had to do some googling to learn that Soba is Japanese for Buckwheat. Now the alternate names make sense! Pours a cloudy orange/amber color with a thin but extremely persistent light tan head. Nose is of nuts and grains, very intriguing from the first sniff. Taste is a nice balance of malt, floral hop, and a nuttiness that iss almost like pecan. It reminds me of some of the pecan ales that are becoming a fad here in the deep south. Who knew buckwheat tasted like nuts? Pretty good stuff.

22oz bottle. A cloudy light orange body that was covered by a two finger head that took forever to die and left a lace ring down the glass. A floral hop smell, maybe some citric notes, along with some spices and clove. This beer had a good hop presence in a medium body, with a citric taste and a dry finish. Also a hint of roasted and caramel malts for a lightly sweet taste.

Rating straight down the middle because the beer is straight down the middle. A light, fairly boring brew without much to say. The buckwheat may give it a very slight boost in flavor, but it is not enough to make the beer interesting.

Metallic, thin, tinny not to mention grassy and dry. A tad astringent with some funky citrus notes . Some kind of spice that I can only attribute to the buckwheat given I have never sampled. Not a fan.

Tastes like a pilsener. I like the carbonation, it suits this beer well. A little bit of citrus makes it a pleasant and highly drinkable beer.

When I picked out a Buckwheat ale in the store I was hoping that it would actually be a wheat beer. It did not appear to be cloudy. Little citrus in the aroma or flavor. It was better than a Bud summer beer though.