Roggenbier
Reuben's Brews

Can from Capitol Highway Deli Mart

A hazy dark muddy brown. The nose is spicy with rye, caramel, banana and clove. Lovely yeast expression. The palate opens with banana and clove but then the rye appears, adding a nice spice depth. Caramel, mild honey. Medium in body. A touch watery on the finish. Solid!

2024-08-08
16oz can served in a curvy Monhegan pint glass. This might be a very old beer, I can't read whether it says PKGD or something else, and I can't read the last digit in the date, but what I can read is 08/25/2_. Bought it yesterday at Chuck's Hop Shop.

Pours a pretty, clear amber with a big, vigorous head, not much retention. Head settles into a thick lumpy skin with lacing clinging high on the glass. Smell is grainy, rye bread and bread yeast, lots of nuttiness and grain husk.

Taste is strong toffee and grain sweetness, almost a horehound/root beer flavor to the spiciness, moderate nut-paper bitterness and earthy hops, big grainy-bready character.

Mouthfeel is fluffy -- light and airy, but fills the mouth. Not sticky or heavy, but big. Overall, this is interesting and different, and I like it, and I want to try more of the style.

Look: Cloudy amber on the pour with a lively, off-white head that refuses to settle, relenting eventually and leaving nitro-like lacing behind

Aroma: Rye, light banana, warm and freshly baked bread, some raw dough, and light earthiness

Taste: Starts out with a ton of bread – dough, warmed bread, crust, and lightly toasted bread and as that settles in, some banana esters float around. Rye is the star as the bread wanes and lends its spicy notes to the fold, along with some earthiness and closes with more bready malt and rye

Mouthfeel: Full, smooth, medium-high carbonation, and smooth and soft on the finish

Overall: This is some good stuff. I’m a sucker for rye in beer so immediately grabbed, and will always grab, any and all Roggenbiers I ever spot, especially from a brewery I respect and enjoy. It’s tasty and a nice example of the style although I just noticed that my can is almost a year old, so I bet the rye was popping even more fresh. Ah well, can’t win them all and still a good beer at this age

Brownish amber brew with a near foam-up in the tall glass. Odd grainy aroma with a perfumey nose. Malty body with a tangy finish. The flavors are quite peculiar, like corn with yams and chestnuts. It's sweet and murky flavored with some green herbal hoppy notes. An even odder candy taste with something earthy and woody. Maybe I will look for it later this year and see if it's worth a repeat. From the 16 oz can dated 08/25/2023.

Earthy brown color with an added tinge of rust and copper. The froth atop the hazy body is solid, if not voluminous. The beer isn't overly pretty, but the somewhat ruddy body seems to not betray style guidelines that indicate "turbid"as a quality.

It smells a bit like brew day, with a bit of the marbled rye bread vibe, though not a strong one. There's a tangy note that grabs my attention more, unfortunately. My initial sip is greeted with a slightly sweeter than expected opening. There is a slight tang to the beer, which backs this opening that doesn't seem as sweet after a handful of sips. The back is more a generic earthy with a slight green banana note that comes out as it warms. The rye notes I expect, including a hint of spice, are mostly hidden for the first part of the beer. They start to present in the linger, and slowly move a bit forward, though they never reach the strength I expected, perhaps unrealistically.

All combined, I enjoyed the beer, though it wasn't as straight or rye forward as I anticipated. I'm not sure if warmth or slow build brought about the rye I ended up getting and enjoying, but it did take a half a beer to come through.

 

Dark see through amber colored brew with a thick tan head that settles fairly quick down to a thin cap. Sweet malt is the biggest note off the nose and it’s just bigger than your normal brown ale. Ok this isn’t overly sweet as the nose might suggest but the rye doesn’t bite or spice much, a bit lighter on the flavor than the big nose might suggest, but this is tasty! Medium/thin body still has some creaminess to it but more carbonation would be helpful in my opinion. Good stuff.

16 oz can

Pours mostly clear amber, off-white head is firm and dissipates slowly to lacing.

Aroma of coppery and biscuit malts, hints of caramel and rye.

Flavor is of caramel, biscuit, banana, coriander, rye, and wheat.

Medium body, tingly carbonation on the roof of the mouth.

First time trying this style as far as I remember, and it's quite good. Kind of reminds me of a dunkelweizen but with mild rye undertones and a richer malt profile. Very worth trying, something I could drink again.

 

Bought from Tavour as part of Reuben's VaRyeity 4-pack that also includes a Rye NEIPA, a dark Munich lager, and a holiday-like beer with Rye and Cinnamon. All told, a clever way to package a less common grain with unusual ingredients mixed in.

This Roggenbier is my third in less than three months... and I had zero before. So, I'm no expert to compare peers in the style. But Reuben's Looks pretty good; greeted with a nice foam that goes away; but has a nice amber body. Smells are mostly malt and a spice mix with cloves leading. Tastes finally give me the rye, mild but distinct. Medium mouth.

My second from Rueben's, I'm impressed. Great variety and talent... not often found in a nine year old.

A: The beer is clear amber in color and has a light to moderate amount of visible carbonation. It poured with a narrow collar of off white bubbles around the edge of the glass.
S: Moderate aromas of banana-like yeast are present in the nose.
T: The taste follows the smell but also has notes of rye, which contribute a slight bit of spiciness.
M: It feels light- to medium-bodied on the palate and has a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This beer starts off smelling like a yeast used in a hefeweizen (and you might think it is a dunkelweizen based on appearance) but it's the taste where the flavors of rye start coming into play. It is very easy to drink and makes for an interesting choice if you are looking a German-style wheat beer.

Serving type: can

 

16oz can into a pint glass. Canned 11/17/20, so 5 weeks old.

Looks very nice in the glass. Clear deep amber reddish body. Small off white head shrinks to a ring leaving a little lacing early on.

Nice aroma of sweet malt and a peppery clove spice mix.

On tasting, solid strong sweet malt base . The clove and pepper notes float in and out. The rye aspect is very mild, but does add a dryness. Easy drinking beer.

Mouth above medium, finish sweet with a well balanced spice hit

Overall, enjoyed this beer. Almost impossible to find this style. Thanks Reuben's.