Brewed By: Rogue Ales in Newport, Oregon
Purchased: Giant PINK 750ml bottle bought at Cardinal Liquors in Chicago, IL; 2012
Style/ABV: Smoked Beer, 5.6% (or 6.5% from some sources?)
As a beer geek, it was inevitable that I would eventually cross paths with Rogue's Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale. Inspired by Voodoo Doughnut's Bacon Maple Bar doughnut -- a raised yeast doughnut with maple frosting and bacon on top -- Rogue's Bacon Maple Ale combines 13 ingredients to put a little maple bacon into beer. You can't go wrong with bacon, right?
Rogue has been around forever, and if their beer was more widely available, and not so damn expensive, I'd probably drink more of it. The brewery was founded in 1988 in Ashland, Oregon by Jack Joyce, Bob Woodell, Rob Strasser, and home brewer Jeff Schultz. Due to increasing space and distribution limitations, Jack Joyce went searching in Newport for a location for the new Rogue pub. It was at this time that he met Mohave Niem, founder of Mo's Clam Chowder. She offered Jack space to brew in her building, and in 1989 the Bay Front Brew Pub was built. Rogue's headquarters currently reside in Newport to this day. In May 1989, current head brewmaster, John Maier, joined Rogue after a brief sting brewing with Alask Brewing. John was a former Senior Technician with Hughes Aircraft Co, and a graduate of the Seibel Institute. To learn more about Rogue, check out their website HERE.
Today's beer is all sorts of crazy. If you check out the Voodoo Bacon Maple page, you can get the breakdown. This beer is brewed with 13 ingredients! The malt list includes: Briess Cherrywood Smoked Malt, Weyermann Beechwood Smoked Malt, House-smoked Hickory Malt, Great Western 2 Row, Munich, C15, C75 Malts. This beer is also brewed with Applewood-Smoked Bacon, and Pure Maple Flavoring. It also uses Perle and Sterling hops, and Rogue's in-house Pacman Yeast. At 5.6% ABV, and 30 IBUs, this is a big beer with a lot of stuff going on. The question is...does all that stuff work together? Let's find out.
Before I even pour this beer, let me comment on the pink bottle. I love it. The bottle art shares the artwork of Voodoo Doughnut, which is a Baron Samedi looking guy. Samedi is one of the Loa of Haitian Voodoo; he is the Loa of the dead. He also shows up in the James Bond novel and movie, Live And Let Die. Anyway, the bottle is eye-catching, and bright pink. The Baron Samedi guy is holding a beer on the bottle, and there are a bunch of pigs and maple leafs in the background. If you saw this in a bottle shop, you'd check it out. So this beer get's an A+ for marketing.
The beer pours with 2-finger's worth of fairly dense head. The head is made up of tiny bubbles, and is densely packed...sort of like a Belgian beer. When I popped the cap I heard a loud hiss of carbonation being released, and I was greeted with some smoke...the head pours with a nice golden/yellow color, and the body of the beer is a hazy orange/maple color. The head is fairly persistent on this, with a half finger's worth hanging around. When held to bright light, you can see a lot of carbonation in the form of tiny bubbles rising upwards. There's also some really nice lacing on this. When held to bright light, this is an orange beer...it's not transparent, but you can see the carbonation.
Let's talk aroma....if you put your nose straight into this you pretty much smell a Rauchbier. I'm pulling out that smokey herbal note, smoked wood, campfire, wet forest, and Christmas tree bark. I'm really getting strong Christmas tree bark...that smell you get when you cut the tree. It's slightly spicy even. When you pull the beer back a bit and waft it around your nose, you pull out fat maple syrup aromas. This smells like straight up maple syrup, pancakes, and Eggo Waffles. I'm not like in the top 1% or whatever, so we ate mother fucking Eggo Waffles. Deal with it, homes. Really though, there's a huge caramel-maple sweetness dominating this nose, but if you just jam your nose into this beer you mostly get smoked malts. I'm getting a little bacon and sausage, but the smoked malts are surprisingly not overly meaty. There's maybe a faint hint of hops on the nose as well with a faint earthy/herbal bite. Cheers!
I took a pretty big sip...because I'm brave and stupid. This is surprisingly thin up front, and even in the mid palate. But man, those smoked malts absolutely kick into gear towards the end of the mid palate, and drive this beer home. I'm getting lingering maple syrup and sausage on the finish, which is the best thing I can say about this beer so far. The second sip is more of the same. This is surprisingly light and airy up front, and then you get a wave of smoked malts: Christmas tree trunk, wet forest, smoked wood. I'm getting a bit of sausage and meat, but it's surprisingly subtle and reminds me of some of the authentic, German Rauchbiers. I'm really surprised by the lack of body and the lack of a huge malt backbone. Based on the smell, I was expecting a lot more sweet maple syrup, and thick malt. You definitely pick up on maple syrup on the back end, and the finish leaves a smokey, sausage, Christmas tree, maple profile on your palate. The finish is smokey and dry.
I've read a number of reviews that have described this beer as, "drinking an ashtray." I tend not to agree...the smoked malts in here are very strong, and you get a lot of smoked wood and wet campfire...but it's not doing anything that a Rauchbier hasn't done. But then, you either enjoy the style or you don't. This is medium-light to light-bodied, has disappointing palate depth, and very little complexity. I'd call it refreshing if not for all the smoked malts. Up front you get carbonation, air, water....this rolls into more water, some grain...and then a blast of wet campfire, smoked wood, and Christmas tree trunk. The back end is smokey, smoked malts, and maple syrup. The finish is dry. It drinks like a 5.6% Brown Ale.
Rating: Below-Average
This is a light Below-Average beer. I'm tempted to elevate this to Average, but you know....
Surprisingly, all the things I dislike about this beer are much different than what I was expecting. I'm not bothered by the smoke; in fact, it has a nice taste. My issue is this is a bacon MAPLE ale. Where the fuck is the maple? Where is the body in this beer...the malt backbone. There's hardly any complexity or palate depth. This beer could really use some bready flavors as well, which would bring that doughnut thing home.
 |
| I can't wait for the new James Bond movie... |
Rogue has been around forever, and if their beer was more widely available, and not so damn expensive, I'd probably drink more of it. The brewery was founded in 1988 in Ashland, Oregon by Jack Joyce, Bob Woodell, Rob Strasser, and home brewer Jeff Schultz. Due to increasing space and distribution limitations, Jack Joyce went searching in Newport for a location for the new Rogue pub. It was at this time that he met Mohave Niem, founder of Mo's Clam Chowder. She offered Jack space to brew in her building, and in 1989 the Bay Front Brew Pub was built. Rogue's headquarters currently reside in Newport to this day. In May 1989, current head brewmaster, John Maier, joined Rogue after a brief sting brewing with Alask Brewing. John was a former Senior Technician with Hughes Aircraft Co, and a graduate of the Seibel Institute. To learn more about Rogue, check out their website HERE.
Today's beer is all sorts of crazy. If you check out the Voodoo Bacon Maple page, you can get the breakdown. This beer is brewed with 13 ingredients! The malt list includes: Briess Cherrywood Smoked Malt, Weyermann Beechwood Smoked Malt, House-smoked Hickory Malt, Great Western 2 Row, Munich, C15, C75 Malts. This beer is also brewed with Applewood-Smoked Bacon, and Pure Maple Flavoring. It also uses Perle and Sterling hops, and Rogue's in-house Pacman Yeast. At 5.6% ABV, and 30 IBUs, this is a big beer with a lot of stuff going on. The question is...does all that stuff work together? Let's find out.
Before I even pour this beer, let me comment on the pink bottle. I love it. The bottle art shares the artwork of Voodoo Doughnut, which is a Baron Samedi looking guy. Samedi is one of the Loa of Haitian Voodoo; he is the Loa of the dead. He also shows up in the James Bond novel and movie, Live And Let Die. Anyway, the bottle is eye-catching, and bright pink. The Baron Samedi guy is holding a beer on the bottle, and there are a bunch of pigs and maple leafs in the background. If you saw this in a bottle shop, you'd check it out. So this beer get's an A+ for marketing.
 |
| Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale |
The beer pours with 2-finger's worth of fairly dense head. The head is made up of tiny bubbles, and is densely packed...sort of like a Belgian beer. When I popped the cap I heard a loud hiss of carbonation being released, and I was greeted with some smoke...the head pours with a nice golden/yellow color, and the body of the beer is a hazy orange/maple color. The head is fairly persistent on this, with a half finger's worth hanging around. When held to bright light, you can see a lot of carbonation in the form of tiny bubbles rising upwards. There's also some really nice lacing on this. When held to bright light, this is an orange beer...it's not transparent, but you can see the carbonation.
Let's talk aroma....if you put your nose straight into this you pretty much smell a Rauchbier. I'm pulling out that smokey herbal note, smoked wood, campfire, wet forest, and Christmas tree bark. I'm really getting strong Christmas tree bark...that smell you get when you cut the tree. It's slightly spicy even. When you pull the beer back a bit and waft it around your nose, you pull out fat maple syrup aromas. This smells like straight up maple syrup, pancakes, and Eggo Waffles. I'm not like in the top 1% or whatever, so we ate mother fucking Eggo Waffles. Deal with it, homes. Really though, there's a huge caramel-maple sweetness dominating this nose, but if you just jam your nose into this beer you mostly get smoked malts. I'm getting a little bacon and sausage, but the smoked malts are surprisingly not overly meaty. There's maybe a faint hint of hops on the nose as well with a faint earthy/herbal bite. Cheers!
I took a pretty big sip...because I'm brave and stupid. This is surprisingly thin up front, and even in the mid palate. But man, those smoked malts absolutely kick into gear towards the end of the mid palate, and drive this beer home. I'm getting lingering maple syrup and sausage on the finish, which is the best thing I can say about this beer so far. The second sip is more of the same. This is surprisingly light and airy up front, and then you get a wave of smoked malts: Christmas tree trunk, wet forest, smoked wood. I'm getting a bit of sausage and meat, but it's surprisingly subtle and reminds me of some of the authentic, German Rauchbiers. I'm really surprised by the lack of body and the lack of a huge malt backbone. Based on the smell, I was expecting a lot more sweet maple syrup, and thick malt. You definitely pick up on maple syrup on the back end, and the finish leaves a smokey, sausage, Christmas tree, maple profile on your palate. The finish is smokey and dry.
I've read a number of reviews that have described this beer as, "drinking an ashtray." I tend not to agree...the smoked malts in here are very strong, and you get a lot of smoked wood and wet campfire...but it's not doing anything that a Rauchbier hasn't done. But then, you either enjoy the style or you don't. This is medium-light to light-bodied, has disappointing palate depth, and very little complexity. I'd call it refreshing if not for all the smoked malts. Up front you get carbonation, air, water....this rolls into more water, some grain...and then a blast of wet campfire, smoked wood, and Christmas tree trunk. The back end is smokey, smoked malts, and maple syrup. The finish is dry. It drinks like a 5.6% Brown Ale.
Rating: Below-Average
This is a light Below-Average beer. I'm tempted to elevate this to Average, but you know....
Surprisingly, all the things I dislike about this beer are much different than what I was expecting. I'm not bothered by the smoke; in fact, it has a nice taste. My issue is this is a bacon MAPLE ale. Where the fuck is the maple? Where is the body in this beer...the malt backbone. There's hardly any complexity or palate depth. This beer could really use some bready flavors as well, which would bring that doughnut thing home.
I do recommend checking this out, just to say you have tried it. And it's definitely a conversation piece...so share this with a few friends.
Last but not least....I know I described this beer as having a "Christmas tree trunk" aroma. I had an epiphany just now...the note I am getting is the same note as the incense that is burned during mass/service at church on Palm Sunday and during Christmas. It's that smoky, incense aroma/flavor. I can't believe my beer tastes like church! Crazy shit! I actually really dig that incense smoked profile...and it might compel me to pick up a bottle of this come Christmas or Easter time.
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