Rogue Sriracha Hot Stout Beer

In case you weren’t sure if sriracha had jumped the shark or not, here’re five words of proof: Rogue Sriracha Hot Stout Beer. My husband bought a bottle of it a few weeks ago, and when we ordered Chinese take-out the other night, it seemed like the ideal time to bust out this spicy beer. 

Believe me, I really, truly wanted to like this beer. Brendan collects hot sauces like they’re going out of style, and he’s a sriracha maniac in particular — we always have a hefty bottle in the fridge. He’s also a beer guy, with a mini fridge in the dining room devoted solely to storing his fancy brews. Suffice it to say, we know from both sriracha sauce and beer around here.

I’ve enjoyed other Rogue offerings, especially Dead Guy Ale. It was my favorite beer back in my college days in Santa Cruz, where it can be found on tap. I enjoyed countless pints at The Red Room (when I wasn’t drinking one of their killer Bloody Marys, anyway), so I was excited to see what this capable brewery might do with a spicy stout.

Huy Fong’s sriracha sauce has a fair amount of sweetness to balance its heat, which is part of what makes it so addictively delicious. The beer, however, lacks the sweetness or booziness to balance out the chili aroma and slight spicy after-burn. Without the sriracha, this would be a pretty good pizza beer. With the sriracha, it’s just kinda . . . weird. Not full-bodied enough to be a slow sipper, it’s neither here nor there.

I’d be curious to know how sriracha might pair with different styles of beer —  a not-so-hoppy amber ale seems like a good candidate. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy other Rogue beers, and perhaps hunt down a bottle of their Chipotle Ale to see how their other hot pepper offering stacks up.