Microbrew Maps: Rogue's Morimoto Soba Ale and Lost Abbey's Avant Garde, but In Reverse Order

I am not a Cicerone. My only qualification for reviewing beer is that I've consumed a good quantity and wide variety over many years. Let's get that out of the way now. Try Draftmag.com or similar site if you want, but I bet you'll find mine are pretty damn close - and way more entertaining. So if you will, here is the first series of reviews by an amateur chronicler:

Lost Abbey Avant Garde – We all have styles of beer we like more than others. I prefer lighter brews to dark ones as a rule of thumb. Not that I don’t like dark, heavy brews – on the contrary, I love them. It’s just that I usually have more than one beer at a sitting and find lighter beers more drinkable, but there is just nothing like a super complex stout or porter on a cold winter day.

Lost Abbey’s Avant Garde is a beautiful creation. I’d say it’s like drinking rainbows, but what the hell does that even mean. Far and away one my personal favorite brews I’ve tasted in 2012. Dark Straw in color, and well carbonated, this beer opens up with a flowery nose, almost earthy in a weird way. The beer itself has a delicious apple, orange and yeasty hint to it, with mild sweetness. Finishes extremely dry, almost like a hard cider. Fantastic. Find it and drink it. Not sure what I would eat it with, but bring it on a picnic with some fresh bread, cured meats and cheese and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Or maybe a roast pork dish of some kind. That’d be good too.

From Lost Abbey's website

Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale – Not the first time I’ve had this beer –and not the last. I bought it the first time for two reasons – I haven’t had a beer by Rogue that I didn’t like, and Chef Morimoto (from the TV show Iron Chef) is just really cool. No way to go wrong.

Don’t be prepared to be blown away by a super intense experience – the beauty of this ale is in its complex lightness. Soba (Japanese Buckwheat) is actually a member of the Rhubarb family, something I didn’t know, and is used as the base for this beer - but in no way does this Ale taste like a fruit beer. It’s highly carbonated, very delicate, slightly nutty and leaves almost no bitter aftertaste. Delicious, and I will be drinking this a lot during the summer. Rogue suggests eating it with Seafood or Poultry - I agree.