Rogue Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale

Brewed By: Rogue Ales in Newport, Oregon  

Purchased: 22oz bomber bought at Binny's in IL; 2014

Style/ABV: American Brown Ale, 5.3%

Reported IBUs: 43

Anyone that watches Iron Chef should know all about Masaharu Morimoto. The dude is a culinary badass, and one of the world's best chefs. It's also been hinted at for a long time now that Morimoto enjoys beer, so it's not surprising at all that Morimoto has designed his own line of beers with Rogue. I think it's a bit of an unfortunate pairing in some regards. Rogue doesn't have the best street credit among craft beer enthusiasts, and there are lots of creative breweries on the cutting edge that could develop awesome beer with an Iron Chef like Morimoto. But at the same time, Rogue's Pacman Yeast is kind of light and lager-y and plays well with the lighter styles of beer that Morimoto seems to be going for. About Rogue:

Rogue has been around forever, and if their beer was more widely available, and not so damn expensive, I'd probably drink more of their stuff. 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.

The Rogue Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale is a Specialty Grain/American Black Ale that is probably similar to a Schwarzbier/Dark American Lager IF I HAD TO GUESS. This is described as a "richer version of our Soba Ale with the addition of specialty malts and a special blend of hops to give it a fuller, nutty flavor while retaining a clean, crisp finish." This one is malted with Roasted Soba, 2-Row, C-15, C-60, Carafa Special No. 2, Rogue Farms Dare & Risk, and Munich malts; this beer uses Rogue Farms Rebel, Liberty, & Independent Hope hops; and the beer is brewed with Rogue's Pacman Yeast & Free Range Coastal Water. Soba translates to buckwheat in Japanese, and is synonymous with a thin noodle made from buckwheat flour that is often served chilled with a dipping sauce, or in a hot broth. The more you know.

Rogue Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale

The beer pours about how I expected it to. This one pours into a Dry Stout/Brown Ale/Dark Lager type body that is somewhere between red and brown and black, not completely opaque, and will be betrayed by a bright light in a minute. The beer kicks up a really nice three fingers of bready, tan head. Head retention looks good, and it really does remind me of a Brown Ale or Dry Stout. In bright light the beer is a hazy brownish-amber color, with moderate streams of mid-sized bubbles keeping the head sustained. It looks okay. There's some tight lacing on this.

The aroma on the nose is really clean, with big nutty aromas, toast, some sea salt and salt, soy sauce, umami, and serious Schwarzbier vibes. You get some Munich malts and caramel/kettle malts in this, with some hints of Marzen-like sweetness. The two big aromas -- nuttiness and soy sauce -- sort of blunt any hop character, but the aroma isn't all malts. There are hops in the mix. They're just super nondescript.

And...it tastes kind of exactly like how I predicted it would. Love it or hate it, the Pacman yeast is subtle, light, and airy. It's clean too. It's maybe as close to a Lager as you can get with an Ale yeast, but I don't homebrew so I wouldn't know. This beer flirts with the whole Dark Lager category (Dark American Lager/Munich Dunkel/Schwarzbier), and I'd throw in Marzens and Brown Ales for good measure. I'm getting a lot of nutty notes, toast, Munich malts and sweetness, earthy/bitter/clean Noble hops towards the back, and some spice. There are hints towards coffee and chocolate, but it's very subtle. There are also some hints towards salt and umami, but I'm not getting any actual soy sauce. It's a hinting beer. It's actually a really nicely executed beer when you compare it to other Brown Ales and Dark Lagers.

Sometimes it's nice to kick back and enjoy a lighter style beer. This beer blurs the line between Ales and Lagers, but it has tons of complexity, good palate depth and duration for the style, and and easy going light to medium-bodied mouthfeel. There's plenty of carbonation, and you don't get any alcohol. There's some nice trailing hop bitterness, good malt flavors, and a clean Lager-like finish that works. Up front: malt sweetness, hints of fruits and berries, toasted malts, toast, Munich malts, hints of coffee and chocolate; mid palate hits toast, kettle/caramel malts, more Munich malts, some complimentary hop bitterness, earthy hop spice and Noble hops; the back end is trailing Noble hop bitterness, lingering toast and Munich malts. There's a layer of salt/umami that never quite comes to fruition.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Light Above-Average here. If this is the new standard to pair with Japanese food, then color me impressed (and throw out your Tsingtao). I could see myself drinking this beer with sushi, Japanese cuisine, and even with some Oktoberfest German foods. This beer won't hold up to the myriad of super hoppy and super malty beers out there, but it's a really good Dark Lager-style Ale. I admit, I think the Pacman yeast sucks when Rogue uses it in some of their beers, but for this beer it works. Also, this one is selling for a very reasonable price...I paid 6 or 7 dollars for my bomber. Maybe Rogue is taking a hint?  

Random Thought: Remember folks, you should never compare apples to oranges.