Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Rogue Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale

I've always been a fan of Rogue Beer's. Some may be off, but there's no denying that they make some pretty interesting beers. Among their many beers they have a three part series that's an homage to Food Network's Iron Chef Morimoto. The beers within the series are an Imperial Pilsner, a Soba ale, and the one I picked up recently at Spec's, a Black Obi Soba Ale. The beer is brewed with roasted buckwheat hence the name Black Obi Soba Ale. Soba are Japanese Buckwheat noodles (an Obi is a Japanese Sash, or the strips of cloth that wrap around martial arts uniforms).
The Beer: Pours a very dark brown almost black. The nose is malty, with strong hints of soba noodle soup, raisins and a bit of hops. The mouth is mild, slightly bitter, tastes a lot like a black lager. A fruity taste, fruity yeast. Its very interesting, but there's an off putting burnt taste. It goes beyond the nuttiness I would expect (and accept) from the roasted buckwheat, its more prevalent. An ok interesting beer, but not something I'd reach for again. This one gets a C+ from me. The folks over at BA don't necessarily agree.

2 comments:

Robert Heugel said...

I haven't had this version yet, but I did have the basic soba ale last year. It was ok, but it wasn't anything special and certainly nothing I'd consider to be up to the normal standards of Rogue. I don't think all of their beers are that great, but I generally like all of their speciality beers and was underwhelmed by the last soma beer I had. Oh well, just give me the barleywine, and I'll be happy. That and the spruce gin...

Barleyvine said...

Bobby, couldn't agree with you more. Your mention of Rogue's Spruced Gin brought up a good point. That good microbrewer's have made good micro distiller's as well. Rogue, Dogfish head, and Flying Dog either helped a micro distiller or had their own. I'm sure there are more.