Roggen's Heroes
Wild Rose Brewery & Taproom

 

 

 

650 ml bottle poured into a lager mug. A light bronze hue with two fingers of foamy chalky off-white head that retains its form well. Looks the part of an Oktoberfest.

Aroma is largely that of rich aromatic malts with hints of flower water and mango from the unique (for the style) hop bill. A subtle toffee-like sweetness, dry biscuits, buttered bread.

Palate is similar, slightly sweet grains with light fruity accents and some spicy pepper near the end (courtesy of the rye, most likely). Honeyed cereal backbone, watered down orange, lemon zest, celery, something else nondescript and fruity that reminds me of Jello for some reason. Carbonation is gentle for a lager. Solid middle of the road body. The hops are quite weedy and floral in the dry finish.

All in all quite good. The malts lack a true "old world" character and the flavors could pop more. I did appreciate the added spicy notes even if they were rather muted.

 

This is a very enjoyable take on Oktoberfest! I sampled a few Marzens this fall and Roggen's Heroes is a unique take on the style. I couldn't help but think of warm german apple bread as I sampled this brew. Fresh, nicely hopped and spiced, and a real tribute to the style! Prost!

 

 

20 oz serving served at the brewery in a logoed WR glass.
Clear, pale copper color, with an inch of bubbly head, left chunky lace, long lasting foam.
It smells of biscuit, caramel malt, lots of grain and just a hint of hops.
The taste is caramel, biscuit, bready, rye spice at the end.
Just enough hop to keep it from being overly sweet, earthy, herbal, and leafy.
The carbonation leaves a little tingle on your lips, but otherwise quite smooth. Medium body,
dry finish.
Malt forward, flavorful, easy to drink. Really enjoyed this interpretation of the style.

650ml bottle. Cool to see an oblique take on the Oktoberfest style, but still within the German overseers' realm!

This beer pours a clear, pale copper amber hue, with three fingers of puffy, stoutly foamy, and mildly bubbly beige head, which leaves some fraught swaths of melting iceberg lace around the glass as things duly recede.

It smells of semi-sweet, somewhat biscuity caramel malt, Save-On rye bread (more white than rye, IMHO), soft earthy spices - nothing overtly in that other seasonal vein, but it's there - musty citrus pith, faint dead yeast, and weedy, floral hops. The taste is bready, fairly sweet caramel malt - the spice of the rye notable, to be sure, but seemingly at the beck and call of the grainy, barley-led cabal, as it were - a slight apple and pear fruitiness burgeoning as it warms, and some further earthy, weedy, leafy, and certainly bitter floral hops.

The carbonation is quite low-key and treated with veritable kid gloves, the body a dense medium weight, smooth, sure, but with a buttery, bitter sort of honesty-keeping offset. It finishes off-dry, the malt all complex as can be, and the antipodean hops maintaining heed to the flag.

With the two guest players in this Oktoberfest dance receiving a lot of the headlines, it's easy, I suppose, to overlook the sturdy amber lager underneath it all. Bready, slightly fruity, and just sweet enough, this one works well, especially as its release coincides more with the North American idea of the inherent celebration, i.e. the whole damned month of October - nothing wrong with that, move along now.

Appearance - Pours a light copper/amber with two fingers of foamy white head. Leaves some nice lacing along the glass.

Smell - bready/toasty malts, caramel, hint of earthy hops.

Taste - Pleasant bready/toasty and rye malts, caramel, and slight hint of citrus from the hops.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes off-dry with a pleasant light sweetness from the bready/toasty malts.

Overall - An easy drinking Oktoberfest from Wild Rose. Excellent malt profile along with the caramel. The earthy hop citrus undertones add a unique twist to the Oktoberfest style. This one is a definite joy. Prost!