The Bar Towel

Really enjoyed this over the weekend, however I didn't note much difference between this and the Brutal Bitter other than the colour seemed a little lighter.

Thoughts?

The Brutal Bitter is a bit darker, slightly cloudier, and a little more malt forward. That being said, they are both hoppy as hell and I love it!

I got some of this and it is an authentic taste of U.S. Northwest craft ale, very big on the C-hops, and indeed drier and leaner than the Brutal Bitter. Very good though, a U.S. bitter ale of distinction.

I found a good use for the last two ounces. I put 8 ounces each of St. Peter's Cream Stout and Wellington County Russian Stout in a Chimay glass. I then added two ounces of the Rogue beer mainly to boost the hops, because I believe 1800's stout was more bitter than today's and benefitted (the palate) from a lot of hops. The last addition was two ounces Perrier water, to get the final ABV to about 6 or 6.5%.

The result is extremely good, a stout with a dryish coffee flavour well-informed with a combination of English and American hops. It reminds me of Guinness when it was bottle-conditioned but better.

Gary

I really enjoyed the Yellow Snow IPA. I do like the Brutal Bitter, but I would take the Yellow Snow IPA over it any day. I would love to be able to get this all of the time so I can add a third IPA to my ST and DFH rotation.

Very good, hops are citrusy and a little funky (chinook? simcoe? shoobeedoo?)

Rogue website says Amarillo hops for this one.

I had this last night for the first time. Superb! Fresh (date code indicates an Oct. 5 bottling), aromatic, flavourful, bitter. Love the Amarillo. I prefer this to the Brutal Bitter, and will be buying more...

Belgian wrote:Very good, hops are citrusy and a little funky (chinook? simcoe? shoobeedoo?)

It tells you on the bottle what ingredients are used, does it now?

Torontoblue wrote:

Belgian wrote:Very good, hops are citrusy and a little funky (chinook? simcoe? shoobeedoo?)

It tells you on the bottle what ingredients are used, does it now?

I can't read through the paper bag I'm drinking from. Can I now.

Torontoblue wrote:

Belgian wrote:Very good, hops are citrusy and a little funky (chinook? simcoe? shoobeedoo?)

It tells you on the bottle what ingredients are used, does it now?

Rogue usually does this, but the YS simply lists "Water, Barley Malt, Hops, Yeast". None of the waxing poetic about free-range coastal water or their proprietary Pac Man yeast this time around. Possibly due to lack of space as a result of having to include the French for the Ontario market? Their website still lists specific ingredients, though.

What a great beer
I like the Brutal Bitter, but this one is quite a bit better.
Wonderful aroma; grapefruit comes to mind. The taste is citrus, with pine on the back end. No sign of alcohol taste.
In my opinion, the hoppiest beer ever to hit the LCBO shelves.

lots of citrus and pine with some caramel and tropical fruit to round things out a bit. nice long bitterness. nice IPA.

pairs really well with tex-mex.

Terrific beer, hideous label. Quite an eyesore on the shelves, but hopefully that will mean I get to hoard more of it.

Recently had one of the newer bottlings. I'm sorry to say this isn't good at all. Talk about unbalanced. It's like hop juice or hop tea. Worse than Prima Pils.

SteelbackGuy wrote:Recently had one of the newer bottlings. I'm sorry to say this isn't good at all. Talk about unbalanced. It's like hop juice or hop tea. Worse than Prima Pils.

it's ok to not like hops, but at least try to kind of know what you are saying.