Rogue Brutal Bitter

old rating: 6/3/8/3/14 - 3.4 pours a cloudy burnt orange with a medium size off white head, and good lacing. smells of citrus, some caramel, some earth, and floral. taste is light, slightly bitter, hops, grain, slightly sour, some malt, and a little fruit, end is slightly bitter, and somewhat sour.

This is a very good ESB. Pours a copper gold with lasting lace and rich head. Right amount of bitterness and finish for me.

Great beer, beautiful hazy amber color. The initial taste is similar to an IPA, but the finish is more bitter. The finish has a bitter grapefruit flavor to it. Slightly unbalanced, lacking malt flavor.

Pours hazy amber with a thin lace ring... no real retention past the ring. The nose contains copper, caramel, citrus and floral hop notes. This begins nicely bitter, all the way through the pour. Pale malts leave some biscuit, toast and slight copper flavors. The finish is peppery and contains a huge citrusy note (grapefruit, I believe, but I couldn’t quite place my finger on the discernment). This is a good offering, but my notes tell me that the ABV is a bit high for a traditional ESB. The bitterness and grapefruit almost pull off an IPA, but misses out on palate placement. The mouthfeel is thinner and crisper than the flavors might suggest, which leads me toward a variance of the traditional ESB, leaning slightly toward an APA.

I’m stunned at the rating of this beer on this site. I had this beer from a bottle at Comet Cafe, and thought it to be rather disappointing although by no means a horrible beer. It was somewhat hoppy, but not nearly as bitter as I expected, or as I was hoping for. However, the beer was extremely balanced with some nice maltiness. Appearance was an amber color with a commercial-looking head of small uniformly sized bubbles. Aroma was hop and significant maltiness which struck me as very balanced. A watery mouthfeel struck me before the flavor, which was a soft hoppiness that kind of masked the bitterness of this beer. While I appreciate the fact this beer was balanced, it was still nonetheless disappointing. I would recommend this beer, yet I would still characterize it as highly over-rated.

Reddish orange with an of-white ehad. Cotrus hops, some pine, very crisp. Bitter, citrus, hops, fruits...tasty. Clean and smooth body. Finishes bitter. Very enjoyabale.

Cloudy orange body with a massive off-white head that quickly faded to oblivion. Bitter hop nose with citrus character. Dry bitter citrus body with a bitter hop finish.

Cloudy orange-amber with big, creamy tan head / Big sour citrus nose / Medium, creamy body with fair, bitter finish / Flavors of cooked grapefruit with hints of orange, caramel, and coriander / Not clear how a bitter differs from an IPA?