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A never ending story of my life is my roller coaster relationship with Rogue Ales.  There are a number of their beers that I really enjoy (Dead Guy, Captain Sig’s, Double Chocolate Stout) but there are some that I just can’t stomach in the slightest (Chipotle Ale, Soba Ale).  Then there are even those that just don’t reach the expectations I had for them (most of the XS series).  Well today I dive back into the abyss that is Rogue and tackle the much talked about Voodoo Doughnut.

When this was announced a number of months ago many of us that live in South Florida immediately thought of this as a possible attempt to copy the wildly successful Maple Bacon Coffee Porter from Funky Buddha.  But I guess maple and bacon go hand in hand.

Word started coming out about how this tasted and first reports were not good.  Those coupled with that fact that Rogue was only selling it by the case at the brewery was on the verge of turning this beer into a disaster.  Soon after they began selling by the bottle, even selling it online on their store.  But eventually a deal was made with Whole Foods Market to make it an exclusive beer to Whole Foods stores across the US.  Well that is if your state legally allows it, sorry Pennsylvania.

Since this a few of my friends have had the beer and they actually stated that they didn’t think it was a bad beer.  So on my way to my company Christmas party I stopped at the Whole Foods over that way and picked up a bottle.  Then last night I cracked it open.

It pours out a burnt copper color into my glass with a slightly off white head.

I could start smelling it immediately after I opened the bottle and began pouring.  I could smell the maple syrup without even putting my nose to the glass.  When I did I get a ton of smoked bacon in the nose.  The maple syrup is there too but you just get smacked in the face with the smoke.

The taste is extremely sweet from the syrup.  This is matched up with an equal overload of smoke.  It’s sort of a mess but sort of works at the same time.

I admit I couldn’t finish the bottle.  I got maybe 75% of the way through before I had to dump the rest.  The relentless attack of sweetness and smoke just don’t do well over a night of watching shows.

For a few hours I was really not sure what I thought of this beer.  I kept going between thinking it was middle of the road to thinking it was awful.  To be honest, I’m still not sure.  It was absolutely unlike any beer I’ve ever had, even counting some really smokey beers I’ve had at tastings.  I have never had the doughnut that this beer is modeled after but I have a feeling this beer in either way doesn’t do it much justice.  While yes it has the maple and bacon aspect a doughnut itself has a nice bready and sugary taste to it that the beer just doesn’t carry.

In the end I’m glad I got to try Voodoo Doughnut.  It was something different and not like anything I’ve ever had before.  But I just feel it was missing something to make it a good beer.  If you have an open mind and palate then give it a try.  Let me know what you thought.

Grade - C-

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I’ve made it no secret about my love/hate relationship with Rogue.  There beers to me always tend to be on the extreme opposite sides of the scale.  They are never really in between.  They also tend to catch a bit of shit from people for a number of things.  From the pricing of their bottles to alleged bad treatment of employees to blind rebrandings of beers.  My latest battle with Rogue is somewhere along that last option.

I know of at least a couple of beers that Rogue simply rebranded to a different name over the years that has confused some customers into thinking they were getting a completely new beer.  But the issue with this recent change is they didn’t necessarily rebrand the beer but changed the beer inside.  Dad’s Little Helper has been a Malt Liquor for a number of years now but recently I had read that they change the style to a Black IPA.  Well upon hearing that I decided I would give it a try.

Now hear is where the issues started coming in.  I just assumed the beer would be in the same bottle that it used to be.  I’ve seen it a number of times on shelves.  Plus I had started noticing Rogue beer having a new lithograph on the necks of the bottles.  They said things like dare and risk.  So I figured these were newer bottles.  And lastly I looked at the price tag below it for Total Wine and it said the style was Black Ale.  Perfect right?  Nope.

When I popped the cap off this and poured it into my glass I noticed the lack of anything black going on in the color.  Hell it wasn’t even brown.  It was mighty yellow and clear with an okay sized white head sitting on top.  Had I become color blind like Ed Roberts?

The smell was full of sweet corn and grains.  Not a single bit of roasted malts or big hops that I was hoping for.

And the taste was exactly the same as the smell sweet corn and grains.  Sorry I’m not being super descriptive but I got to make due with what I’m working with.

So I looked at the bottle and did notice then that the bottle said Malt Liquor on it.  But a lot of breweries call their beer a malt beverage right on the label I thought.  So I took to the interwebz.

Low and behold the new Black IPA version of Dad’s Little Helper has a color change.  Same artwork but purple instead of brown.  And it does say Black IPA on it.  So there we have it.

I will definitely take some of the blame on this as I could have looked online first or even when I was in the store to see which I was getting.  I will just throw a teeny, tiny amount at Total Wine for having the price tag and description say it was the Black IPA version.

But in the end the malt liquor version wasn’t as gross as you might think.  It wasn’t sink worthy but just not good in my opinion.  It definitely tasted like a malt liquor so I guess they get some points for that.  But this was not my style of beer.  I purposely never bought it all these years because I knew that.  This purchase was a mistake thinking I was getting something completely different.  So I won’t be completely harsh on my grade to it.

Grade - C-

A lot of people say go big or go home.  Well here is a chance to show your belief in that saying.  Tonight at the World of Beer Clematis location they will be having The Big Beer Event.  A number of big and/or high gravity beers will hit the taps at WOB for your enjoyment.  Here is a list of those expected.

• Rogue John John Dead Guy
• Rogue Double Dead Guy
• Avery Maharaja
• Avery 18th Anniversary
• Avery Samaels
• Redbrick Mason Double IPA
• Stone Russian Imperial Stout
• Tequesta This Ain’t Your Mama’s Double IPA
• Tequesta Red Dragon
• Cigar City Puppy’s Breath Porter
• Cigar City Oatmeal Raisin Cookie
• Dogfish Head Sah’tea
• Dogfish Head Theobroma
• Dogfish Head 90-minute Randallized

So get ready to back up your words and have some crazy big beers.

Things start at 7pm and will go on until close.  Just pay as you go.