Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale

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

Large frothy head good carbonation in a straw coloured beer.Aroma wheat like,grain,no doubt soba/buck wheat okay,hoppy,malty.Flavour milky intersting,smooth,malty,a worthy drink.Has a tang.Finish hoppy,smooth,good stuff.

(bottle) A cloudy, light-orange beer with a medium sized white head. The aroma has sweet fruit and flowers. Flavor is sweet with only a small hop edge. Grassy and earthy. Smooth, soft, and medium bodied.

Bottled as Morimoto Soba Ale. Aroma is faint and vegetal. Flavor is creamy almost buttery but I don’t sense the nuttiness it supposedly has. It is a new taste but I think some what similar to Blue Moon’s Honey Moon Summer Ale. Not exactly but still reminiscent enough. Im very much liking this.

Labeled Morimoto Soba ale. Pours dark golden color with white head. Light malt aroma with floral hops. Flavor is slightly sweet and nutty with some hop bitterness. Medium body fith fizzy carbonation and a smooth mouthfeel with a crisp finish.

750 mL bottle as Morimoto Soba Ale. Pours a light yellow with a small white head- like a poor pale lager. Little carbonation and aroma of farmland or something. Tastes very creamy though and actually would go perfectly with sushi. Hints of salmon or tuna sushi- I’m not kidding. Drinking this beer I have a craving for sushi- it’s weird. The special soba grain is fantastic and really brings this beer to life. I agree that it does finish with a sort of miso soup flavor. This would be perfect with Japanese foods no doubt about it.

I love noodles, and I have a special soft spot for buckwheat soba noodles. Soft, delicate, and packed with thick earthy flavors they are delicious when cooked and prepared correctly. I also love beer. Conveniently, Rogue has taken two gourmand passions and bottled them together. Now, soba buckwheat noodles have a very specific and particular flavor so how they will work in an ale remains to be seen. Far from turning down a new beer experience, I will be there in the front of the line with my glass in hand.
My Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale poured a cloudy dark orange into my wheat beer glass. Light peeks through along the sides and bottom, adding a light clay-brown tinge to her colors. A decent head floats on top, then fades into veritable nothingness with only a slight ring around the sides of my glass. No brussels lace to write home about. I take stock of her nose which has light hints of chewy malts, caramel, and lots of earthy wet soba noodles. I am pleasantly surprised by the largely distinguishable presence of the soba noodles in the nose. This of course imparts upon me an immediate craving for Japanese food to accompany my brew. Unfortunately, that tempting combination shall have to wait for another time. I take a couple quaffs and am struck by the full, thick, and softly chewy body and mouthfeel which is very reminiscent of its namesake, soba noodles. Mingling amid the soba noodles are hints of lemon which lingers in the finish, cleansing the back of my mouth and prepping me for more. Compared to the overall soba explosion in the nose, it is a bit more subdued in the palate. Some sweet caramel and nuts also show up. As my Moriomoto Soba Ale warms and I near the end of my glass, the soba becomes a bit too overwhelming.
A different ale from Rogue to be sure. As much as I enjoy my soba noodles and my ales, I think I may prefer them separate more so than together. It could also be the fact that the Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale comes in large 22 oz bottles. That is a lot of soba to drink by oneself. If I could split it with someone, or enjoy it in smaller 12 oz bottles, then it would be less overwhelming. In the meantime, I am going to have to do something about my edible buckwheat soba noodle craving.

(bottle): Pours an amber orange body. Small whitish head. Malty aroma, strong hay smell, pilsener-like. Malty pilsener like taste, hay. Some acidity. Some hops. Somewhat sour aftertaste. A good lager-like taste.

Courtesy of Tone @ OTH. Pours golden, white head. Aroma is malty, with notes of rice (buckwheat). Taste, malty, lots of grains, buckwheat, very sweet and light with notes of fruits. Light and enjoyable beer.