Step 3: Rouge Brutal IPA
ABV: 5.8%
IBUs: 59
Brutal IPA, also called Brutal Bitter is one of the staple IPA’s of the Rogue Brewing Company. I worshiped this beer when I first started drinking IPA’s oh so long ago. In my juvenile opinion this was the cream of the crop. Brutal is in the same sort of ball park as Immortal, but this beer is a little less malty and a little more hoppy, just the way we like it.
Brutal is an easy to drink beer, that is excellent at accenting it’s hop additions. The beer has a clean thin feel to it with a light citrus taste on the back of your palate. This goes hand in hand with its spicy and floral arrangement of hops, Crystal and Perle respectively.
The first thing you will notice about this beer is the sheer quality of it. One of the best things about this particular beer is that it is so simple. I don’t mean any disrespect by that, I just mean it has 7 ingredients. That’s it. No need for 15 different types of hops, and 10 different kinds of malts, they took the time to make a simple beer and make it right. You can tell from your first sip that this beer was brewed with tender love and care.
What is also neat is that this beer, like every other Rogue beer, it uses fresh hops straight from the Rogue hop farm in Oregon. It is quite interesting, Rogue grows its own hops and when they are going to brew a batch of beer, the farm picks the hops and immediately drives them to the Newport brewery where upon arrival are pitched into the brew kettle for the boil. Doesn’t get much fresher than that!
Instructions:
Surprisingly I have found this beer a little hard to come buy in most stores. Since that is the case, head to the brew house in Issaquah and get this draft right off the tap. You won’t regret the trip, they have most if not all of their beer available for purchase as well as Rogue merch and epic bar food.
