Morimoto Soba Ale
It's fair to say of Japanese culture that it emphasizes conformity; while this ale is designed to be widely approachable and easily quaffed, it doesn't exactly look like most mainstream marketed beers. For one, it has way more colour (a fair papaya flesh tone) and its head retention suggests that they haven't skimped out on any malts. Soba sounds exotic but it's just the Japanese word for buckwheat. In fact, soba is extremely common in Japanese cuisine and chances are if you've ever ordered an Asian noodle soup or gotten some fast stir-fry to go, you've tried it already. The aroma comes across without much fireworks. It is a plain-ish, rather ordinary smelling ale, free of fruity esters or much graininess. The buckwheat is identifiable, however, to those who would know to recognize it. Likewise a light drizzle of pungent Pacific North-West hops, which lie delicately over the bouquet like an early morning mist over the seaside. Whether it's all in my head, who knows, but I'm finding this beer to have a very definite "Asian-y" quality to it. It has the same kind of texture (a kind of cardboard starchiness?) as the soba (and udon, for that matter) noodles that I so frequently get for take-out. The flavour of buckwheat is also very perceivable, as if we were chewing on the seeds themselves, and tasting ever so slightly like dried green peas. The soba has a very definite earthiness and, while others have termed it as being 'nutty', my lasting impression of it is more zesty, much like fresh-grated ginger. However you describe it - and, honestly, try to, it's quite difficult - the ale is certainly a highly approachable one, with its slightly fruity hops going out way more quietly than I ever thought possible in a Rogue beer. Morimoto Soba is an excellent offering for the squeamish lite-lager crowd to cut their teeth on. It's a unique and well-crafted beer that at the same time won't come across as too unfamiliar. Snobs may snivel about it being average beer, but I think pretty much everyone else is able to recognize it instead for being something both agreeable and enjoyable.