Artisan Lager

From old tasting notes. Deep orange copper color. Thick creamy beige head.mspft toffee-like malt nose. Clean bittersweet malt flavor has a subtle malty character. Nice balance and body. Hoppy finish is dry and lingering.

1998-2000 bottle (somewhere in there) big thanks to SkepticMAP for sending this. Opening beer of the best tasting of which I’ve been a part of, to date. Peachy-orange colored body, light ruddiness to it, with a layered effect of darker colors on the bottom. No head, only a smattering of bubbles, but it hasnt lost every last drop of carbonation, just most of it. Aroma has tons of brown bread, hints of cinnamon and some cider vinegar, though not terribly strong. Smells like old Seignuriale. . .Flavor....darn, it’s long overdue. Mostly oxidized/watery body gives glimpses of past grandeur. Caramel, strong chewy/nutty yeast, more apricots and peaches with some light spiciness that gives the effect of rye.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and do something different. As with many young samples of beer that are not particularly superb yet, but show great potential (and thus I rate on cellar potential), I am going to rate this on what it must have been in the past. Because you can certainly feel the large amount of thick caramel malt. Certainly this was not intended to have been aged this long, as well. Proper yeastiness (it’s Rogue after all), tons of sediment and bits of grainy vienna malt, light fruit. Rewind 2-3 years, taking out some of that oxidation and I have no doubt this is a fantastic example of the style. There are no off flavors in this old sample, just heavy oxidation. What can you really expect from a 5-7 year vienna?!

Deep golden amber.Little or no aroma. Good sweet malt flavor. ..............