Chatoe Rogue Single Malt Ale

October 14th, 2010 beckel

Today I have the 1st beer from Rogue Brewing’s Chatoe Series of BYO Certified beers. It is also the 4th and final ale from the series that I picked up last week from the newly opened Lake Wine & Spirits. Perhaps I’ll have to look around to see if I can still find a bottle of their Dirtoir Black Lager to complete the series. As the name implies this ale has a very simple grain bill consisting of only one malt and one hop. Beers like this are a great way to learn about the ingredients used in brewing  and are lovingly referred to as SMaSH beers in the homebrewing community. Consisting of First Growth Dare Malts, Revolution Hops and the usual Pacman Yeast. I am quite excited to sample these ingredients in their purest form.

Pours a very attractive bright orange hue that is very clean and rather translucent. Just over 2 fingers of bright white head is produced and slowly opens into larger and larger bubbles leaving a small amount of lacing and a little bit of residual head after about two minutes. Both malt and hops hit your nose immediately with hardy malt sweetness, cereal grain esters that remind me of Cheerios, oranges, modest bitterness and a bit of alcohol. Strong cereal grain esters are immediately noticed on the tongue, followed by orange fruit esters and a bit of additional citrus that I can’t quite place. Gentle alcohol and a hint of bitterness, most notably lingering on the tongue after swallowing. While it is a difficult task to make a balanced beer with a whole bunch of ingredients it can be equally difficult to make a simple but beautiful brew and unfortunately in this case I don’t feel Rogue quite delivered. Overall this is certainly a clean ale with some enjoyable flavors including very gentle hoppy tartness. Body is light and the mouthfeel is relatively clean. The ABV on this brew isn’t listed but Rogues website states the Original Gravity at 12º Plato so it probably comes in around 5%. Making this a very sessionable. I am very curious and excited to see how the grains and hops that Rogue is so passionately growing will evolve over the years and wonder a lot about how much their age has to do with the flavors present in the ales (and lager) of this series. Seeing brewers take risks like this is one of my favorite things about craft brewing but unfortunately this brew doesn’t have anything particular that shines for me. Definitely not a bad beer and something that I’m sure plenty of people will enjoy. Give it a shot and ride your bike.

Chatoe Rogue Single Malt Ale