Rogue Brewery Event at The Drafting Room

Last Saturday I had the distinct pleasure of sampling some beers from Rogue Brewery and even some imported (from Oregon) cheeses from the Rogue Creamery with a lovely friend of mine and the newest recruit to The Ferment Nation, Citizen Elizabeth.  If you have never been to The Drafting Room in Exton, PA, be on the look-out, because you just might miss it.  I know I did!  It is nestled in a strip mall on Route 100 (the Pottstown Pike).  But don't let the unassuming location fool you.  They mean business.  They had a lot of great Rogue beers on tap, a nice bottled beer list, and even a full-page selection of single malt Scotch!  Yowza!

Photographs are compliments of Citizen Elizabeth

We started off the event with a flight of 5 beers of the 14 they had on tap.  The beers we sampled ranged from the uber-chocolately Double Chocolate Stout and the crisp and hoppy XS Double IPA to the cloudy yet satisfying Chatoe OREgasmic ale and Rogue's tried-and-true Shakespeare Stout (on nitro) and Double Dead Guy Ale.  I think I can name the Double Chocolate Stout and the XS 2x IPA as the winners of the day, because they were truly tasty and bold in flavor (Citizen Elizabeth does not tolerate wimpy beers!).  In fact, compared to those two beers, Double Dead Guy seemed a little washed out.  But beware!  Double Dead Guy sneaks up on you.  Don't be fooled by its smooth flavor - it packs a punch.

You can see from the photo above that the OREgasmic Ale as well as the Double Chocolate Stout were very cloudy in appearance.  That didn't stop them from being quite tasty.  Double Chocolate Stout looked and tasted like a wonderfully adult chocolate milk.

The cheeses from the Rogue Creamery were noteworthy as well.  The sampler consisted of a cheddar, an outrageously delicious blue cheese, and a chipotle cheese, which went quite nicely with Rogue Chipotle Ale (HINT: If you are looking for a nice chipotle flavor, skip the ale and dig into the cheese).  They were accompanied by an apple chutney and an apricot jam.  We rounded out the beer tasting with a glass of The Drafting Room's 17th Anniversary Lager, which was brewed by Troegs.  Tasty, but nothing spectacular.  Overall, this was a very nice event.   There were at least 5 or 6 Rogue beers we did not try that day, and we skipped on the Oregon imported oysters (shipped overnight express), but I would say that there was not a bad beer in the bunch we tried.  The food was tasty, and the service was great, too.  Drinking good beer on a sunny Saturday afternoon is always nice, but enjoying those things with a friend made it great.  Many thanks  to Citizen Elizabeth!