Salmon Days Roe Ale 2010
Issaquah Brewhouse

Every year, Issaquah/Rogue brews a beer in celebration of Issaquah's Salmon Days festival. It's always called Roe Ale, but every year it's an entirely different beer.

The bomber is totally Rogue--even got a Rogue cap. The wonderfully complete ingredients list says this has Sorachi Ace hops, so take that "Belgian Pale" designation in a catch-all sense.

The only other Sorachi beer I've had is the one from Three Floyds, which was like a spicy lawnmower beer. This is crisp and light, too, but it's brewed with flavorful, lightly burny Belgian yeast that bounces wonderfully against the odd hops.

The bottle says it's a Belgian pale, the girl at the bar described this as an American pub mild, but really it's unclassifiable. It's not a beer for hop head and it's not a beer for traditional beer drinkers. It's still discernably beery--someone who doesn't know all the much about fancy beer would still call this beer. But it succeeds in its spice complexities, and those spice complexities aren't like any other BPA I've ever had.

Grab one if you can find one.