22 June 2008

Rogue Half-E-Weizen (ORE)

This appears to be one Rogue ale that hasn't been tried by everyone yet. Despite the name, it's not clear it is supposed to be a hefeweizen. Beer Advocate has this categorized as a witbier; ratebeer goes more accurately for the simple "wheat ale."

Straw colored, wonderfully lacy white head. This is in unfiltered wheat beer, although I struggled to distribute the yeast from a bomber that's larger than my biggest glass. Half-E-Weizen lacks the banana creaminess of many of its German counterparts. It does have spiciness -- ginger which I can't quite pick out, and coriander which I can. At the end, a very American hop bite appears, but Rogue uses Saaz hops rather than a Northwestern US variety, so this has a slight pilsener touch to it. (Southern Tier's Hop Sun uses Centennial hops and tastes more Northwestern). Overall, Half-E-Weizen comes across as light, crisp and refreshing. Not wrong for the summer.

It's pretty good, but I personally prefer my unfiltered wheat beers with more lemon and/or banana creaminess (that being said, I like Hop Sun a lot). For those who don't generally like hefes, do the hops make this worthwhile? Or are they too little, too late?

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