Breakfast Beer Tasting: Rogue Brutal IPA

Basics: This is a man size 650ml bottle and is 5.8% in strength. The beer is brewed using three varieties of English malt: Pipkin, Cara Vienna and Cara Wheat. The only hop used is Oregon Crystal which is a triploid variety that combines the best of Cascade, Brewers Gold, and Early Green.

It’s amber in colour with an off-white foamy head. The aroma was quite noticeable citrus; pineapple, grapefruit and some sweet malt.

Taste: Medium bodied, it appears very well balanced. The expected hop blast never happens. Not brutal, in the literal sense, at all. There is a good initial hop bite with clear citrus tones, but the biscuit malt soon comes through to tilt the scales. You're left with a quite mellow mix of malt and grapefruit.

Finish: Short blast of medium dryness.

Conclusion: An accomplished piece of complex brewing. Nicely balanced and easy to drink, this is a class act.