Rogue Colossal Claude Imperial India Pale Ale

Rogue Colossal Claude Imperial India Pale Ale.

8.2 % ABV. 75 IBU. Rogue Ales, Newport, OR. 

Clear, bright golden hue, large, lush ivory head.  

In the nose: Hoppiness abounds in the aromatics. Bold citrus and pine. Fruity, flowery, lovely. 

In the mouth: Bright, bold, brisk, and dank as it gets. Sticky-icky. Juicy. Candied apricots, orange, grapefruit, passionfruit, tangerine. Stone fruit meets citrus a deep well of resiny hoppitude. Smooth and delicious. Medium bodied, long, hoppy finish, rich and tasty. This one's got the goods. 

I picked up a 6-pack of this because I adore a 6-pack (72 ounces) for only $12. I fell for it at first sip. I'd gladly return for more. This one shot to the top of my list of favorite double IPAs. 

It's been a few decades since a Colossal Claude sighting has been reported, but we're fairly certain the massive sea monster has been laying low off the coast of his favorite brewery. Word has it that after years of terrifying sailors and feasting on salmon he acquired a taste for hops. So we brewed this Imperial IPA with a colossal dose of Cascade, Chinook, Citro and Strata hops in hope of coaxing Claude out to join us for a pint.

Ingredients: Superior Pills, 2-Row, Wheat, Oats, C-15, Cascade, Chinook, Belma™, Eureka, Strata™, Imperial Juice yeast

Rogue Batsquatch Hazy India Pale Ale

Rogue Batsquatch Hazy India Pale Ale.

6.7 % ABV, 54 IBU. Rogue Ales, Newport, OR. 

So, hazy IPAs don't bug me as much as unlabeled hazies do. I recently had to delete a post about a double IPA from a brewery I love, as I spent so much space and time complaining about the fact that this wasn't labeled as a "hazy" that I completely forgot to describe the flavors of the beer . You wouldn't have wanted to read that at all. You probably don't care to hear me rant against smoothie sours and marshmallow beers, either, so I'll keep avoiding them. Or maybe you do, but I'm still spending my money elsewhere.

And when Rogue (who I haven't sampled in at least six years. Odd that they were once a staple at Acadia for whatever reason, and I never ordering a keg, once in five years.) comes out with a hazy IPA that's only $8 for a six pack of 12 ounce cans, you can bet I'll be trying it. 

It's hazy, bright golden hued, large white cap of foam. 

In the nose: Soft, citrusy, slightly sweet. Trademark Rogue yeast. 

In the mouth: Juicy, sweet, light bitterness on the palate. Medium-bodied, easy-drinking, with the flash of the tropical tastes mingled with the citric. Just enough lingering bitterness to keep me happy. Not a bad IPA at all, and you can drink it. 

For years, rumors have circled that deep in the woods on Mount St. Helens lives the fabled Batsquatch. While there are many tales of Batsquatch, they are all a bit hazy on the details, which makes the truth such a juicy mystery. So what better way to honor the elusive legend than with a hazy IPA? Perfect for camping and potentially making a new friend. This juicy, cloudy IPA features intense tropical flavors and aromas.

Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar Ale

Part of this project called the Bitter Nib is re-visiting old beers, as much as trying out new ones. Very often I find myself looking at the old notes, taken before I started posting my reviews here, and find them satisfactory. Other times, such as today, I pass my eyes over them and find those notes lacking. Outdated. Not quite appropriate.

Today, I look at Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar, Ale with Natural Hazelnut Nectar, with fresh eyes. Let's do it:

Appearance: thoroughly hazed, caramel brown coloring, large and lasting cocoa/tan head.

Aroma: sweet malt notes first off, with nutty overtones. Quite nice.

Taste: Once on board the palate, it's sweet as she gets. Notes of molasses and brown sugar, dark malts of all stripe, drowned out by hazelnut nectar. Hop bitterness steps in to tamp down sweetness just a step, but it's large and in charge to be sure. Medium bodied, long, malty finish. A rich, tasty treat, but not one I'd reach for very often. A once in a while shot of decadence.

Here, for kicks, is the effusiveness I dropped on the internet back in April of 2004:

"Deeply, darkly, tawny brown color, with a smallish head, cocoa-tan hued...aroma: sweet, roasty, very malty, lush and chocolatey, nuts aplenty.
Taste: goodness! Ever-so sweet! Yum! No hops, huge, caramely malt, but full-on sweetness, thickly textured...wow, the high-concept is thrown in high-relief here, as I can think of no other expression so sure of this particular style, their aim is true, and they hit the mark perfectly. Hazelnut, yes, so rich, and thick, and an excellent dessert brew, something to adequately fill in for Frangelico, if the need arises.
They bring it on full-bore on this one, wow, it's a choice brew, indeed!
Hey, do a specially-flavored brew, do it all the way, that's what I say, and that's what Rogue does here!"

Did I ever love the exclamation points back then. I'm pretty much cured these days.
("choice brew", man, what was I thinking?)

Rogue Farms 7 Hop IPA (Accompanied by Ruminations from a Hopeless Glassware Addict)

Rogue 7 Hop IPA. Preceded with an indulgent ramble.

It is a fact. I am obsessed with collecting beer glasses, in every shape, size and style. It's a mania I need to control, for it's impossible to satisfy these desires. Do I have space to save and store them all? No, sir. Do I need them all? Of course not. And yet, here I am about to a Rogue beer, and find that I don't have a Rogue glass to pour it into for the photograph, and that bothers me. Of course, I used to own one or two, but they break, it's inevitable. While washing the dishes, knocked over my clumsy self or one of my curious cats, a casualty of a move….it's just gonna happen.

I've got pint glasses in the collection for breweries I've never been to, and might never sample again, if I ever did. Do I need them? Probably not. There might be a culling coming up, an eBay sell-off, to tighten the old collection up and make it more manageable. And yet, I still have to steer myself away from the insanity of collecting. If I see a Roque glass for sale, will I buy it so I don't face this "problem" again, or will be reasonable and say, "No, after all, how often do I drink Rogue, anyway, and isn't this enough, at long last, isn't it enough???"

On to the beer:Rogue Farms. Grow the Revolution. 7 Hop IPA. India Pale Ale brewed with Seven Varieties of Rogue Farms Hops. 8.0% ABV. 90 IBU.

Lightly hazed, bright amber coloration, under a slim white head. Perfect look for an IPA, right on the money.

Aroma: Ah, that's it. Bright, bold, lively citrus-y hop presence. Piney. Beautifully bitter.

Taste: Bracingly bitter hop attack is the first pounce on the palate, lingerly long. Too much for some, I'd bet, but it's right up my alley. Or, "in my wheelhouse", as some say. I spend more time in alleys than in wheelhouses, so that's where I head.
Juicy, juicy stuff, an utter delight on the tongue.

Medium-bodied, happily hoppy, with a modicum of malt to keep it balanced. My kind of double IPA.

Hey, what's it say on the label? "Dedicated to Farmers and Fermenters. In a bold collaboration with Mother Nature, we grow 7 varieties of aroma hops at Rogue Farms in Independence, OR. We also string, stake, train, test, trim, separate, sort, kiln and cool them. Brewmaster John Maier had 7 varieties available, but rather than picking from among them, he chose to use all 7 to create a proprietary palate for 7 Hop IPA.

I can't remember how much I paid for this, but it couldn't have been too much (under $10?), because I usually pass on the high-end Rogue stuff. While this one is good, it isn't $20 good.

Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Maple Bacon Ale

Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale Ale Brewed with Natural Flavors.  "Dedicated to Tres & Cat Daddy, The Rogues of Voodoo Doughnuts, Brewed and Bottled by Rogue Ales, Newport, OR, 97365. 13 Ingredients: Briess Cherrywood Smoked malt, Weyermann Beechwood Smoked Malt, house-smoked hickory malt, Great Western 2 Row, Munich, C15, C75 malts, Applewood-smoked bacon, Pure maple flavoring, Rouge micro hopyard revolution & independent hops, free range coastal water, & pacman yeast, no chemicals, preservatives, or additives."
More about the plato, IBU, Lovibond, and AA, whatever that is, but I can't find the ABV. Where is it? I can't find it.

So.
This came out months ago, and people freaked, my friends gobbled it up, posted pictures on Facebook.com, etcetera…and I just couldn't bring myself to buy one. Why? 1. the cost, especially versus my doubts about the beer. (I paid $11.99 for this one.) 2. I like smoked beers, but maple and bacon? Do I really want to drink a doughnut? Is that what I'm looking for in a beer? 3. The bottle looks like Pepto Bismol. Not comforting. Also, I'm worried about ingesting sprinkles. (It's a doughnut beer, it should have sprinkles, right?)

But I regretted not trying this unique concoction, after all, it is necessary and important for me to try everything…everything, no matter how much the color of the bottle makes me think of upset stomach. And I found a bottle, and now I'm drinking one. Or, about to, anyway...

And now I'm wishing I had a Homer Simpson pint glass, it seems a natural choice. I'll just reach into the cabinet and find what I can find. …Nope, nothing with a pig on it, oh, well…

Hazy, crimson appearance, under a lush, looming, booming, slightly off-white head, sparkling and lace-leaving.

Aroma: screams out from first pour, the maple and the bacon, together as one. Let's go in further…Smoke hits first, and you can feel the fire below, plenty of char above the maple and bacon, like walking into a freshly burned building. I think I liked it better before I went in for a closer sniff.

Taste: Big, fresh smoked malt right away, matched with mild hoppiness, and then in roars the maple, then the bacon. Malt is lighter than I imagined. Did I expect a porter? Perhaps I anticipated a breadier mouthfeel, for a more "doughnutty" taste?
Maybe because I've never had a Voodoo Maple Bacon Doughnut, I can't compare this against it's true inspiration?

Somewhat thinnish mouthfeel, uninspiring flavor, beyond the gimmicky additions. Doesn't make me think of a doughnut in the least.

This should only be sampled among a large group of friends so that everyone gets a smallish taste, and can all agree on how sad this brew is…don't make my mistake and try to tackle it on your own.

Rogue Dead Guy Ale

I'm digging through some old stuff, cluttered on my desktop. One is a bottle given to me by one of my bartenders. "Hey," he said, "my friend says if you have this on tap, he'll be here every day." You know, people say that, and they never follow through. Anyway, it turned out to be Rogue Dead Guy Ale, which, of course, I've had/heard of/tried many times/used to love/once had on tap.

Here are notes, from the first time I tapped it, back in December, 2002. Yeah, it's an early one, and it's a gusher, and a bit self-serving. But, here it is:


I'm drinking this fresh from the tap--my second,now--while I peruse my notes on a review from a bottled serving. So what do I think now and what did I say then? We'll put the two together..

First off, like with any brew, this is 100x better on tap, the flavor explodes. Any time you can find it on draft, reward the operation,please, for their boldness and their taste, and order a Dead Guy instead of your usual local micro pale ale. But about the beer...

Beautiful, big off-white head, gorgeous amber/dark orange color.

Aroma: bright, fresh fruitiness, vegetableness, it's a veritable garden in here.

Great hops, just mild enough, with loads of malt. I was confused about the style for a long time. I was led to believe that it was an Oktoberfest, but aren't they usually lagers? A recent trip to Oregon and a visit to a Rogue Ale House set me straight about the DG's true genealogy. An ale-style maibock! These guys are geniuses! Spicy but soft palate, very pleasant finish, an utterly delicious drink!
Unfortunately, this brewer is acutely under-represented in this region. We even lost Shakespeare Stout, thanks to the distributor's bean counters!
All hail Dead Guy, Long May He Rest!
----------------------------

When I returned from that Portland trip, I met a manager from that distributor and asked why Shakespeare Stout, one of my favorites, was no longer available. I was selling it in bottles, at the Nile, and they cut the whole line back to just three beers, including Dead Guy, Mocha Porter, and Honey Cream Ale. His response was: "We know what we're doing." Followed by: "You're a beer geek, aren't you?" This distributor lost their contract with Rogue once the brewery found out they were selling a slim segment of the line-up on purpose.
But, while I can find them these days, it's hard to get an affordable 6-pack and the bombers are always expensive. Kegs, too. I'm unlikely to turn to them very often, and it has to be something special.

Voodoo Maple Bacon Porter, on the other hand, that's one I was afraid to spend hard-earned cash on. If I ever see it again, though, I probably will pick one up. Just to do it.

Rogue Double Chocolate Stout

More talk of money and pricing. And packaging.
The Rogue XS series, and their outlandish bottles, and outrageous prices. Makes me long for the days when all of their bottles were in 12 ounce bottles or even little 7 oz. "nip" bottles. I like paying for beer, not for bells and whistles, paint jobs and foil wrapping. Because of this, I tend to skip the Rogue offerings that edge up into twenty dollars per. Because of that, I look forward to tapping these beers, so I can taste them without plunking down the green. And so we have...

Rogue Double Chocolate Stout, on tap.

Deep ebony appearance, modest brown head, cocoa-toned, leaving lace, very lovely.

Aroma is all cocoa, bittersweet, nothing but chocolate.

Taste: smooth on the palate, then sweetness, a little bumpy, a bit rough malty texture, then the bittersweet cocoa rides in again, in spades. Bit sweetness, but welcome, even, not cloying, straight up and down chocolate heaven here, matched with some astringency, and a good brace of bitterness.

Full-bodied, in case you wondered, rich and thick, and utterly delicious. Excellent balance, high hoppiness matche the malt and the super chocolate attack incredibly well. Damn, this is easy to love. Mmmmm.

So much in those handle fuels of m's, so much pleasure, so much association of utter…damn, how often do I turn to this?…yum.