Beer - #193 - Rogue - Voodoo Doughnut Chocolate Peanut Butter and Banana Ale

A most improbable beer then - Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Chocolate Peanut Butter and Banana Ale, with I hasten to add - Natural Flavours!

Brewed of course by Rogue Ales and this is in the style of a  Fruit Beer and the madness is all happening in Newport, Oregon USA.

A Collision of Crazies Rogue Ales has again collided with Voodoo Doughnut to create Chocolate, Banana & Peanut Butter Ale! This unique artisan creation contains a baker’s dozen ingredients including chocolate, banana and peanut butter to match Voodoo’s "Memphis Mafia" doughnut- a nod to Elvis’ entourage.

Conflicted by the bottle label of 5.3% ABV and the sticker advice of 6.5% ABV this 1 US pint bottle contains either 3.1 or 3.8 standard drinks. Take your pick.

I think this is going to be "sweet", and for no reason I expect it to be pale in colour. I might be 1 for 2.  I also think that it's going to be a long beer, in that it might take a while to digest and drink. After all a sweet beer might not be the thing. But in the interests of taste and experience I had to get one.

It occurs to me of course that this could be a "dessert" beer, if you're looking for a wine comparison.

Slightly sour on the opening. Pours a dark chocolate brown, with a firm light brown head. Chocolate and Banana to the fore.

Taste is like a hint of very smooth peanut butter, with a mild chocolate carry, I don't immediately get any banana.

Couple of things, not a sweet as I thought it might be, and it's a lot darker than I imagined.

Also pretty carbonation heavy and has a burp factor. Head remains firm and delivers a decent lacing too. The aroma is picking up to banana as it sits a bit, and is beginning to deliver on the palate.

And this leaves me in an odd place. For this is neuter unpleasant and at the same time neither is it pleasant. Pleasant in the sense that you've suddenly sculled the whole thing and can't remember doing it pleasant. It's pleasant in that it's not a lot of thinks that could be horrible and wasteful.

The chocolate note lends itself a lot to a stout type experience if you want to get to a point. There is also not an unpleasant bitterness to this, it's many beers in one.

The pdubyah-o-meter is aching to award arbitrary scores on this, and I think 8. I think 8 because this could be a train wreck and it isn't. There is no huge bell curve of taste, nothing at either end that makes the eyebrow arch with interest. The taste is all in the middle, all lined up.

This then is a bit clever. It's also a bit dumb. The all natural flavours lean towards disbelief and doubt, like they're potentially a little bit made-up by a man in a white coat. It's clever because it's quite outrageous.  I like the soft flavours, I like the bitterness, I like that it has a head that carries.

I find myself a bottle downed and a smile. I liked this so much more than I thought I would, but then I went in with an open mind and few expectations. Not a drink for everyone, but it sets up a nice evening in with a early goal on the board.

Related articles

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Beer - #164 - Geek - Coconut Porter

All in then on a Geek Coconut Porter- Brewed by Geek Beer in the style of a  Porter and they weave this magic in Windy Wellington, New Zealand

Never had a Geek beer - but couldn't pass this one up. A 330ml bottle of a 6% ABV beer (1.6 Standard drinks), and at 30IBU this isn't going to be too challenging middle range bitter.

Geek Coconut Porter is a dark robust porter with a depth of flavour created from a wide range of carefully selected malts with the addition of toasted coconut. The intriguing aroma and rich chocolate flavour makes for a truly delicious beer. You could even say it’s Geekalicious.

Aroma on opening of desiccated coconut and of chocolate, it's like confectionery.

Dark pour, no head, not even a hint of one, it's almost dead flat calm, even though I know I could hear carbonation a happening. The Aroma remains a dark rich fruity base.

And a confusion of tastes follows. Mostly burnt fruit. But of coconut there is some, not all up in your face but you can hear it singing on the wings.

I'm betwixt and between on this, it seems like it should be heavier but it's a bit thin on length. There is a magnificence of chocolates and fruits and coconuts, but  there could be more.

It's ok, but they could all be turned up to 11, as it is though this lacks lenght, and turns into a rather sweet experience that might make it a longer drink than you'd like.

The pdubyah-o-meter after a first flush peters out to a rather disappointing 7 things on its scale of things. I would have liked more, I'm glad I came, and it won't put me off another.

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• Atwater's Vanilla Java Porter (beerapuetic.com)


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Beer - #135 - Lagunitas - Imperial Stout

Tonight then a Lagunitas Imperial Stout, Brewed by Lagunitas Brewing Company an that's in the style of a  Imperial Stout and they do that in of all places Petaluma, California USA

Having downed his forth Imperial Stout of the day, the wild eyed charlatan from Voldvostogniaky belched and hollered for the Czarina to enter his chamber and bend herself to his will. The economy was a wreck and revolt was just around the corner. Nicky the Czar dude was off playing soldier like any pale nobleman with a hemorrhagic skin condition would. Such were the final days of the old empire. Reactionary, decadent, sputnik, stroganoff, weird, and drunk. But even as the proletariat countryside labored under inhuman conditions and a threat of being sent to a futile war in the east, they wisely took the time to slam back an Imperial Stout or two. After all, life can be a real "suka", as they say in the old country. Big, black, bourgeois, bolshoy, belligerent, buxom, and scary - this is our version of the chaotic end of an era in a bottle.

a Pint of a 9.9% ABV beer (or 8.8% according to the import label) and that's about 4.2 or more standard drinks. Spells trouble .

So expectations: Black, Coffee/Chocolate, slight bitter, s little bit of what does you good.

There's a goodly complex nose on that, chocolate mostly, some smoke, deep dark brown, chocolate head, gorgeous aroma, chocolate and what might be a summer fruit.

oh and that's lovely and thickly rich and just gorgeous. wow.  Nicely sweet, lots of layers, plenty of length, how much can you enjoy a good thing. Aside from the sweet you get from the chocolate or roasted malts it carries a bitter under-note.

Instantly you know you like this beer. the pdubyah-o-meter says 9, it might just be a little sweet , and also a little too sour to make the final push, but I don't know that it should. There is more than enough to keep you occupied with this goodness in a glass not to rush through because there is a lot to enjoy with this.

Give it a go, I'm impressed by this, you might be too.

Related articles

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The 12 ways of Christmas – The Festive Treats

There were things that were only ever seen in our house for one month a year. Fleeting things enjoyed because of their rarity in some instances.

The Treats.

As well as the backup tin of Quality Street chocolate in a big tin, the one we didn't use to decorate the tree we had a number of celebration things in the house for christmas.

Satsuma Oranges individually wrapped in tissue paper. this is how they came from the grocers, it wasn't a family tradition or any such thing, they were just wrapped. Not all of them, some in the bowl were, and these were the prized ones of the the pickings. For no reason than they were wrapped in tissue. on reflection being winter of course a tropical fruit was a luxury, and presented as such.

Orange and Lemon Slices. Sugar coated jelly candies. The blob in the middle was for the Mother, the slices were allocated at one of each per child, perhaps. We seemed to have unlimited boxes of these things, there was always one being opened when anyone visited, perhaps it wa some strange ritual that has since passed into lore. All I can remember is there were always lemon and less orange slices left to sneak during the early evening.

Dates. Why we had dates I'll never know. They came in an an oblong box, and contained a wooden fork to jab them from the box. I still have a vague unease about boxed dates, and how they looked inedible, mouldy even, wrinkled in their box, all sticky and glistening.

Mixed bag of nuts. Walnuts, Almonds, Filberts (Hazlenuts) and possibly the least liked, Almonds. Hours, or what seemed like hours, cracking nuts and extracting, usually, pieces, of nut from crushed shell. definite win if you could extract an unbroken walnut from a shell.

The Christmas Stocking. Which contained a selection of chocolate bars that you were supposed to enjoy over a period of time, expected to be longer than an afternoon. Never happened. Don't recall any trades going on either, my Milky way for your Smarties... none of that.

There were also, and this is going to either ring a bell or ring an alarm bell, Chocolate Smokers Sets. These were a presentation of smoking related things in chocolate form, containing, from memory, An Ash Tray, a Lighter, A pipe, and a packet of chocolate cigarettes that were in a packet that looked like the real thing, each cigarette wrapped in tissue.