Rogue Younger's Special Bitter (ORE)

Rogue produces not one but two bitters: Brutal and Younger's Special. The former is their imperial version and thus receives most of the attention. I supose most US breweries would simply have called them pale ales. The bottle claims Younger's as 12 degrees Plato, 75 AA and 35 IBUs. It doesn't list the ABV, but I calculate about 1.048 OG and 1.012 FG (75% attenuation), which is just below 5%, which is what it says online.

Younger's is a nice looker, coppery with a pillowy head that sustains pretty well. It's not adventurous or anything, just nicely balanced between caramel malts and bitter hops (Willamette and East Kent Goldings, according to the bottle). I detect slight citrus and floral, slightly American I think. It has a pretty good hop bite to it, but not by American standards. The finish is dry. Drinking on a warm afternoon, it is very refreshing.

The problem is that, at my beer shop at least, this costs as much as the rest of the Rogue line ($6+ a bomber). That feels like too much for a sessions beer, even if a nice one at that.

Rogue Dad's Little Helper (ORE)

Dad's Little Helper reminds me a bit of posh restaurants that charge you $12 for a fancy version of a BLT. This is a malt liquor, after all. Five or six bucks for a bomber of a glorified Mickey's big mouth?

It pours a not very clear yellow/gold with a nice white head. It doesn't look like much, but the mouthfeel is fabulous. Rich and creamy, not too much fizz (just as I like it). This is made with plenty of flaked corn and you can taste it. And, yes, it's sweet. But it's also really tasty. There aren't any musty or boozy flavors, although those might appear if you let it warm up.

Rogue doesn't list an ABV, but it says it's 17 degrees Plato, which is about 1.07 OG, which could be 6.5-8% ABV depending on the attenuation. Dad's Little Helper isn't exactly well-attenuated. Still, this doesn't come across as being very alcoholic, and thus is potentially dangerous. On a warm day, I could drink this all afternoon.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that this beer isn't well regarded. It currently scores a miserable sub-2.6 at ratebeer. Maybe they're fools, maybe I'm an idiot, maybe I just drank it at the right time and place. Maybe it's all an expectations game, but I really thought this was really good.

Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar (ORE)

This has been rated well over 1,000 times at ratebeer, so I don't think there's anything new to be said. Still, I'd never had it until now. Ratebeer lists this as a winter seasonal -- is that true? I assumed it was year-round.

The nose suggests that this might be a hopped up American brown ale, but after tasting, I see that it's really the roastiness that sets it apart. It's almost chocolatey, which gibes well with hazelnut. Not too sweet though: the 33 IBU is used just to keep it in check. Very tasty, but the body seems a bit lighter than I might have wanted (not that it's watery). It's less rich and, I think, less good than Dogfish Head's Indian Brown, which I currently rate as my favorite brown. Still, the two beers are not trying to do the same thing, and I understand why this is so highly regarded.

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?