Summer Orange Honey Ale - Rogue Ales
Another one of the Rogue featured beers the LCBO brought in is Rogue's Summer Orange Honey Ale (I reviewed their Chipotle Ale a few days ago). I felt a nice "summer" ale was just the thing for this lovely hot summer day in Toronto. That being said, I don't really know what a "summer" beer is. A light cold beer that you can drink a lot of? A beer with floral additives (like DDC Rosee du Hibiscus)? A wheat beer? In this case, Rogue gives a listing of ingredients. Aside from some noteworthy Rogue brand malts and hops, there is also wheat and oats, honey, chamomile, orange peel and coriander. Sounds summery to me!
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From a silk-screened Rogue 650ml bomber, with no freshness date (though there is an LCBO sticker, added to clarify what any 6 year old could have gleaned from the label, which could be covering a date), the beer is a hazy yellow with a bit of fluffy head that dropped to a fuzzy film. Aroma is grainy malts, with some orange peel and a little herbal hop. Taste is quite a bit more complex, lots of dry hops flirt with bitter dry orange peel. Both are carried by a mellow sweet malty body. I get no honey in the taste at all, though I'm told honey actually ferments out, and I shouldn't actually taste any. So I feel okay about that. A nice active carbonation helps keep things light on the palate; with the brightness of the orange peel taste as well as the nice sweetness, the beer is going down quickly indeed. It's perhaps a tad too complicated to call a lawnmower beer, but it certainly would be a welcome brew on a hot patio or back deck, and would serve you well at a BBQ. Summer Orange Honey Ale is a nice summer brew, and a great choice if you're going someplace and want an interesting and attractive bottle to take with you. Get it while it's here.
Cheers, Rogue!