The Whiskey Reviewer A World of Whiskey, Poured Every Weekday
By Richard Thomas
Rating: B+
Oregon-based Rogue Ales is one of the best established and widely known brands in American craft beer. Founded in 1988, one of the craft beers I recall seeing in wide distribution in the ’00s was their Dead Guy Ale. They’ve been such a prominent fixture on the national scene, in fact, that when I find myself talking “big craft beer” in America, people are surprised when I tell them that “Big Beer” hasn’t acquired Rogue Ales.
At The Whiskey Reviewer, we’ve taken an interest in Rogue Ales for two reasons. One is that they became a brewstillery, or joint brewery and distillery, making whiskey. The other is that they have whiskey barrel-aged beer.
One of the items the Rogue fan following awaits is the annual release of their Rolling Thunder Imperial Stout. This item is aged for 9 months in barrels previously used to age their own Dead Guy Whiskey, with the name drawn from their cooperage. The stout is a 14.4% ABV and comes in 16.9 oz bottles or cans.
Rolling Thunder Stout is a deep black beer with a creamy head. As is the case with some whiskey barrel stouts, it leans very heavily into the sweet side, with just a trace of earthy bitterness. It drinks like a stout with raspberry syrup and brown sugar, plus notes of vanilla and raisins. Very sweet, fruity and syrupy, with a new white oak whiskey barrel current.
Whiskey barrel stouts are usually great as desert beers, and this one certainly fills that bill. Some prefer more vanilla, and others more syrupy sweetness, and this is definitely a syrupy sweet whiskey barrel stout.
Great packaging, mediocre beers. I was in their Portland brewpub last fall and I was surprised at how mediocre their beers were. They didn’t stand up to the 4-5 others we visited, not even close. I hope they’ll do better with their whiskey efforts
This isn’t the best whiskey barrel stout I’ve had, but it’s good in my book. One thing in particular I liked about it isn’t as heavy, so as a desert stout I can drink it and not feel utterly stuffed.