A Year of Craft Beer, Vol. 79, Rogue Dead Guy Ale

This has been one of my favourites for a long time.  I was first introduced to it when I lived in Oregon and attended a big wave surf contest party at the Brewery in Newport, OR.  It is considered to be a Maibock/Helles Bock which is like a bock but lighter in color with a bit more hop character and the about the same ABV and is often associated with spring time festivals.  Mai=May

The bottle, of course gets homebrew points for being reusable.  I definitely give an extra few tenths of a point for bottle and design.  Both of which are excellent.  May they never change it!

The beer pours a beautiful hazy (chill haze, poured it cold) deep orange/amber with an amber/tan one finger head that stays throughout the drink as a full ring and Friar Tuck cap in the center of tiny silky bubbles mixed with a few larger bubbles.  Lacing is very apparent with sticky looking disorganized archways.

The aroma is centered around citrus, whether it be citrus hops or actual orange and lemon, it's there with a nice sweet caramel base to it.  There are some hop floral notes as well and maybe a bit of breadiness.  Very faint.

Wow!  The taste!  There is a good reason that this is a world class beer!  It's two major constituents, sweet and bitter are so very well balanced that it allows for the minor flavours such as citrus, caramel and some yeasty banana to play a hand in making you fall in love with this beer.  And to tell the truth, all these flavours play on your tongue equally throughout the sip from start to finish, one never dominating the other until only at the end when there is some mild dry hop bitterness.  I think the slightly above moderate amount of carbonation is what really pulls this off.  It's truly a beer drinking experience to behold.

Mouthfeel.  Silky, creamy and sweet with a just-under mid range body to it making it thin enough to session and not get overly tired of any one character like sweetness.  EXCELLENT! The amount of carbonation is moderate yet a little lively and really lends to helping bring all these flavors and aromas to your senses.

Overall I am going to have to give it a 4.75 out of 5.  I don't know what a 5 would be, I haven't tried it yet and I'm banking that this may be an actual 5, but I'm new to this and don't have the experience to give out 5's. 

All that I really have to say that if you don't try this beer, you don't know what you are missing and it needs to be on your bucket list!  Thank you Rogue!  Now get out there and drink some different drinks!  Mix it up, but stop drinking f@cking Jaeger Bombs and drink good beer!  Life is short enough, don't make it even shorter drinking that complete garbage!

-Wiss