 kempicus (350), Wellington, New Zealand
Mar 28, 2009 Updated: Apr 12, 2009Yeah it’s big, yeah there’s a load of flavour and aroma but it’s just a tad harsh...i know, i know it’s called brutal bitterbut there’s a way to be brutal and polished and this aint it...
EHopper (274), Minnesota, USA
Mar 28, 2009 Nothing sweet about this drink. Hardly tastes like beer, little carbonation, like eating coco without sugar, or a cracker without salt. Kind of a no taste sour with soaked with green bark. No bite at all. Don’t know what happened. I generally like this type of beer.
chops (60), Brantford, Ontario, Canada
Mar 26, 2009 650ml Bottle from the LCBO. Long lasting head. Bitter, but not too bitter. Hops are balanced perfectly with some distinct fruit flavors. A great beer.
gilvanblight (390), Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Mar 21, 2009 Hazy light rusty orangy brown pour with a really nice bubble filled head. Flowery. Reminds me of something... christmas... wth? No I’ve got it, christmas trees, real live ones. It smells of pine. Very distinct taste. Very cleansing. Feels like it’s washing my mouth out of all inferior tastes. What a nice beer. I generally am not a fan of Rogue, this has changed my mind. There is a bit of a bitter aftertaste I can do without (grapefruit).
astrofrk (218), Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Mar 21, 2009 Cloudy. Light amber. Huge, long head. Aroma: Grapefruit, roasted caramel. Flavor: Same. Smokey. Dry, bitter finish.
nickd717 (1276), Palo Alto, California, USA
Mar 16, 2009 Bottle from Whole Paycheck - I mean Whole Foods. A great ESB, not "brutal" at all. Cloudy golden color with a two-finger white head. Aroma is malt and floral hops. Flavor is a nice mix of malts with lots of Crystal hops and citrus notes. Bitter on the finish. Highly drinkable with a smooth palate.
djd07 (724), Houston, Texas, USA
Mar 15, 2009 Bottle. Pours a cloudy copper golden color with a small frothy white head that diminshes quickly. The aroma is a strong hops with floral and pine. The taste is a very strong hop but still smooth with citrus grapefruit and pine. A very good ESB from Rogue.
Seumas (6), Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
does not count  Mar 15, 2009 I didn’t know what the Brutal in Brutal Bitter meant until I tasted it back-to-back with the equally hoppy but more refined Southern Tier IPA.
Brutal Bitter, which I had second, came up much more earthy and lingeringly bitter than the Southern Tier. Not more bitter, it’s just that the bitterness in the Brutal stuck to the tongue much longer than that of the IPA. If I was asked to guess, I’d put it down to late and aroma hopping in the latter, and continuous hopping in the former.
I can’t imagine how much Crystal you’d have to put into a brew to arrive at the advertized 59 IBU from a relatively low-alpha, aroma hop like that. I should imagine you’d have to put in one heck of a lot and put it in steadily throughout the boil. (As mentioned in the commercial description, there is no aroma hopping.)
Come to think of it, Brutal Bitter bears more than a passing resemblance to Dogfish Head’s 60 Minute IPA, which supposedly does use continuous hopping.
In all, Brutal Bitter is a good solid ESA/APA for hop heads who aren’t looking for too much finesse.
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