Rogue Charlie 1981

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Growler from Bearden Beer Market, sneaky bastards. Beautiful nearly clear perfect amber coloring with a tight but short cream colored head and only initial lacing that is sporadic at best. Hoppy amber, aromas of pine, floral and earthiness with a big malt presence. Taste is pine and earthy hops, very dry, with big lightly sweet malts to balance nicely. Dry finish. Nice and decently smooth. Did I mention it is dry? It is. Dry. Tasty. This growler may kick my ass...

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

this is an assertive, mean beer .. . pours a dark brown, some spotty lacing .. . mainly bread grain, toffee, nutshell, and kickintheballs .. . quite a dry beer, and it stings the tongue, big .. . an ok beer but a bit messy and a dry harsh finish .. . Do you mind taking your free hand off the doorbell..

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

This strong ale pours a slightly hazy coppery brown with a decent off-white head. Aroma is spicy, mainly of cloves, and malty. Flavor is malty and fairly hoppy, just a little bitter with more than a hint of cloves. Texture is lively and quite tingly.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 8

I sampled this during the Great Atlanta Pub Crawl. It's an excellent old ale. It wasn't quite alcoholic or fruity enough for a barleywine, but it was definitely strong. Nice malt and a little hop bitterness to back it up.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

Pours with a dark brown body topped by a medium thick head with some lacing. It’s bitter and hoppy with a slight malt note and a peppery alcohol note. Full bodied and warming.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 5

Sampled draught at the San Diego Brewing Company.

So this is supposed to be the beer that set the whole Rogue brewing machine into motion eh? Brewed to honor Charlie Papazian, who's homebrewing books inspired many a'enterprising brewer in Craft Brewing's infancy in the early and mid 80s. And supposedly a beer very similar to this actually came from one of Charlie's books. Or is that just a quirk in the story, to give this beer more pizzazz?

Judging my what ended up in my glass, I'd say the story holds water a bit more than I think folks would like to admit. Yes, this does indeed have a rather rugged "just sarting out homebrewing" feel to it, I'm sorry to say. An unintentionally accurate snap-shot of what John Maier was making as a homebrewer in 1981, perhaps?

Either way, this really didn't blow my mind. Very indistinct appearance, with a head that faded quickly, to wherever the aroma wandered off to, seemingly. The nose picked up a bit near the end of the glass, but not enough to rescue it.

Came across to me a bit too thin and dry, and a bit on the astrigent side of things. Not as gawd-awful as my last homebrewed batch (R.I.P., Cornish Ale ver.2.0!), and this did have some vaguely inteesting things going in the hop department. But just never seemed to "gel" in both my mind and my mouth. Disappointing.

This was a rough pint to finish off, to be honest. An ignoble end to a beer that really needn't have been resurrected by Rogue, IMHO...
//TB

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Poured a cloudy brownish red color with a medium sized, off white head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of citrus hops, toffee, nuts, bready and caramel malts. Taste of chewy caramel and toasted malts, dried fruits, and a huge grapefruit bitterness in the finish.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 9

Medium brown color. A BIG bodied ale. Malty and fairly hoppy. Big full taste. Nice complex flavor. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is bitter. No alcohol bite despite a 9.1%. Excellent beer.

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 10 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9

Had at the brewery in Newport, June 2003. Murky pale red hue with little head. Apple and apricot aroma. Thick syrup feel. Very impressive sweetness and dryness togethor. Nice hop bitter finish. Hugely dry palate. Flavors are quite mild for a strong ale, with a slight blandness present; this is the only negative thing about this ale.