Rogue’s Voodoo Doughnut Ale sitting pretty with some friends in an Aperture Science beer glass.
Rogue Ales, Voodoo Doughnut, Chocolate, Peanut Butter, and Banana Ale, Oregon, USA $9.95
Quite why I picked up a bottle of this stuff is still a bit of a mystery to me seeing that as soon as I registered the terms “Chocolate”, “Banana”, and “Peanut Butter” on a shocking pink bottle of beer I actually started to retch a little. If the sheer suggestion of said ingredients in an ale sounds pretty revolting, trust me, in reality it really was rank.
This beery abomination is also known as the “Memphis Mafia Donut Ale” and therefore completely unsearchable on the awful LCBO online database. I’m taking a wild guess that the LCBO wouldn’t allow the word “Mafia” on the label, hence the name change?
The beer poured dark brown and murky, with a one and a half finger yellow head, and some lacing appearing on the sides of the glass as it was depleted. So lets say that it looked like an artisanal root beer, not necessarily a bad thing in my book.
Both aromatically and on the palate there’s a hell of a lot of prominent artificial banana and chocolate… and yet the bottle states that Rogue use natural flavours? So let’s look at the ingredients: 2-Row, C-150, C-175, Carafoam Special II & Chocolate Malts; Rogue Farms Revolution & Independent Hops; Chocolate, Peanut Butter & Banana; Pacman Yeast and Free Range Coastal Water.
Hmmm… natural you say? Well it smells and tastes more like the flavouring they use in cheap convenience store ice cream. And I have to ask where the peanut butter element is… as there is nary a hint of the stuff. That’s probably a good thing for me, seeing as I cannot stomach the combination of nuts and chocolate. Flavour wise this beer is really all about the roasted chocolate element, but it doesn’t sit well with the over-carbonation, the sickly sweetness, and the overall lack of body… it comes off like a piss-poor chocolate soda that just happens to be 5.6% alcohol. What a shambles.
If I were from Portland’s famous Voodoo Doughnuts I would be embarrassed to be associated with this novelty rubbish.
(And that’s only for its novelty value as a disappointing stocking filler for annoying relatives)
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Edinburgh-born/Toronto-based Sommelier, consultant, writer, judge, and educator Jamie Drummond is the Director of Programs/Editor of Good Food Revolution… And that was… errrr… different.
Hello Mr Drummond. Here I sit in Sunny New Zealand looking at an empty bottle of the Rogue Voodoo Doughnut beer and in part I agree with your critique. I would love to know what the following ingredients are and thought I would ask if you had any knowledge.
2-Row, C-150
Thank you.