Oregon

Oops. It's been about seven months since I brought this beer home. I didn't intend to "age" it... I just kind of forgot about it. It was tucked away in the basement behind some 750ml bottles that won't mind sitting around for a while. A Prickly Pear Braggot though, that's not really the kind of beer you should keep waiting for too long. I'm hoping the past few months have been kind to this beer, but I'll understand if it has grown a little tired of waiting on me. Sorry about that...

Deschutes is a name that comes up quite often when we talk about breweries that don't sell their beers in our state. Deschutes has a reputation of making very desirable beers, none of which I've been able to obtain before a couple months ago. Since then I've had a Mirror Pond, Hop in the Dark and Inversion IPA. I've been trying to keep an open mind about Deschutes but they seem to be a one trick brewery who's brewing philosophy seems to be, "PUT MORE HOPS IN IT!" In fairness, I haven't had a Deschutes beer that was too hoppy, but there's a common thread in all the beers I've had from Bend, Oregon...

I don't start this off by saying how much I don't like IPAs. I've said it a million times before so there's no need to say it again. What I will say is that I do tend to like IPAs that showcase hop flavor rather than bitterness. While Deschutes doesn't distribute to my area, I have heard that there beers are a great example of how you should use hops in a beer. I got my hands on a couple of bottles of Inversion IPA and decided to see how Deschutes uses their hops for myself. The packaging intrigues me, which is a great start. The imagery of Oregon's high desert and peaks above the clouds... it's pretty cool, I'm sold on a visit to Bend.

I picked up a tiny bottle of Rogue XS Imperial Red Ale the first time I saw it. I was intrigued by the packaging as much as I was by the style. The only thing I could think of was "Imperial Red = Double Amber?" I really had no frame of reference, and that was exciting. The more thought I put into it though I realized, Ambers aren't all that interesting... would a Double Amber be twice as not interesting? Two wrongs don't make a right after all. Since this was only a 7oz bottle I figured the barrier to entry was low enough I'd take the leap.

Rogue is one of those breweries which people say a lot of great things about. Word of mouth still goes when convincing consumers to buy your product. I've never heard anyone say a bad thing about Rogue so I keep trying their beers in hopes that I'll understand what people see in them. My most recent attempt to understand the Rogue hype is this bottle of John John Dead Guy Ale. This bomber is a collaboration of sorts, it's basically just Dead Guy Ale aged in whiskey barrels. The cool part is that the barrels held Dead Guy whiskey. It's a neat anecdote but I'm not an expert on whiskeys so it doesn't mean a whole lot else to me.

First, you should know I'm not a coffee drinker. I don't like the temperature or the flavor of coffee. I find it too bland or too bitter, so I just don't drink it. I do like Stouts and Porter style beer, even when they are a little more bitter than I'd like. The dark flavors in these beers are often compared to coffees so I guess it only makes sense to brew a beer with real coffee flavors. I've had a number of Coffee Stouts and Espresso Porters but I've never taken much of a liking to them. Usually I'll just take a sip, say it tastes like coffee and move on. I have yet to find a coffee flavored beer I genuinely like.

I've heard a lot of good things about this beer from pretty much everyone. I enjoy stouts of all kinds and have been looking forward to this one for a while. This beer certainly didn't disappoint as I poured it into my glass. Rogue's Chocolate Stout is a thick bodied dark stout that smells exactly like chocolate malted milk. It's almost eerie how exact the aroma is. It's eerie because this a stout that doesn't smell like dark roasted grains. This beer smells so much like chocolate milk it's amazing. The flavor is another story...

"Bah Humbug" pretty much sums this one up... BridgePort's Ebenezer is a Winter Warmer that is incredibly thin and watery. I expect Winter Warmers to be thicker, darker beers that are rich in flavor and warm you up. The Ebenezer is really none of those things... It smells nice and has a malty flavor with a little caramel but that's all it has in common with other Winter Warmers. This beer tastes a little flat, like a glass of Coca Cola that's been sitting in the fridge for a couple hours. The Ebenezer has a bit more malt and hops than a glass a flat Coke but other than that they're pretty indistinguishable from each other.

Oh look, it's another holiday season IPA... Granted, Rogue doesn't market their Yellow Snow IPA as a Christmas beer, but it's still an IPA that's meant for wintertime consumption. Maybe I'm crazy but I just don't see the appeal of an IPA when it's below freezing outside. In the spring, in the summer or even in fall... IPAs are great, but when the rest of the beer in my fridge is a Stout or Holiday spiced ale? I dunno... But enough about preconceived notions, how does this beer look, smell and taste? Does it feel like a holiday beer? How would it stack up against turkey and all the fixings?