Quick Take: Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale

Earlier today, following a hard day at the office, Mr. Bojangles and I decided to visit Albany's finest beer bar, Mahar's, for a couple of hard-earned beers. One of the nicer things about Mahar's is its rotating Rogue tap - lately, they've been offering a random selection from Oregon's finest brewery as part of their beer tour, and we've partaken in recent months of draft Chipotle Ale and 10,000.

Today, our beer tour lists read "Rogue Soba Buckwheat." Knowing nothing more than that, we both partook of a pint.

The verdict (on what we would later determine was Rogue's Morimoto Soba Ale)? In a word - meh.

The website describes the ale thusly: "Morimoto Soba Ale is brewed with Roasted Buckwheat, Pale malt, Munich Malt, 13-17 Carastan Malt, and Crystal Hops. The flavor is unique, toasty-nutty sensation with medium body and good hop bitterness."

The beer was, in many ways, remiscent of a Belgian Witbier, but with one notable difference - instead of a strong wheat taste and a strong citrus hint, it tasted a bit watered-down; while we like soba/buckwheat a great deal (a favorite Japanese dish of ours is a soba noodle salad with Thai peanut dressing and scallions), it didn't serve this beer tremendously well -it didn't have the lasting flavor of a Witbier, coming off as insubstantial in comparison.

In short, it wasn't a terrible beer. That said, we probably won't partake again.