Rogue's Brutal Bitter

while at hidden the other night, my tastebuds were tingled by Rogue Brewery's Brutal Bitter.


it pours with an awful lot of head, and stays a bit hazy even after it warms up a little.  offered in 650mL bottles, it didn't say what its alcohol volume was, but judging by our lack of addle-brainedness, we figured it wasn't outrageously high!  15 degrees plato, 59 IBUs, 14.2 degrees Lovibond and just 7 ingredients:  100% floor-malted maris otter, cara vienna, cara wheat malts; crystal and rogue farm willamette hops, free range coastal waters and top fermenting pacman yeast.  no chemicals, preservatives or additives.  suggested food pairings are beef and bbq.

they say:  "Dedicated to Justin Fisch, the "Shade Man".  An imperial style bitter using exotic traditional floor malts, a hoppy citrus flavor with a stupendous hop aroma.  Hedonistic!"



definitely has a hop aroma, its smooth and very easy-drinking.  not particularly bitter and makes a great session beer.  we like it, we really like it!

"that's a fine summer beer", says alison
"its better to be brutal", says i

the website says: 
"2007 World Beer Championships—Gold
2006 World Beer Championships—Gold
2005 World Beer Championships—Gold
 
HISTORY
Dedicated to Justin Fisch, the Shade Man, and the official beer of the Rogue Nation. Brutal combines Oregon hops with English Malts. The Oregon grown Crystal hop is a triploid variety developed from the German Hallertau aroma hop variety with contributions from Cascade, Brewers Gold, and Early Green. Crystal is the only hop used in brewing Brutal and it provides a massive amount of aroma without dry-hopping."

i love the rogue brewery!
it may actually be the first craft brew i ever tried, before i knew what craft brewing even was.  i was in texas and got taken to the larger than imaginable local grocery store, where they had an entire aisle of hot sauce and two aisles of beer - it was heaven!  the dead guy label caught my eye and was the only memorable beer among the mixed six-pack i picked out.
since that day i have never been disappointed by a rogue beer.

and the brutal bitter was just what the doctor ordered the other night (well, okay, it was me who ordered it, my doctor doesn't actually approve of my beer drinking, but you know what i mean...) to wash all my cares away.  subtle, delicious, refreshing.  thumbs way, way up!

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