Rogue Brutal IPA

BRUTAL IPA! From a well-known, hop-connected, US brewery!! Are your nerves jangling for their hit of lupulus goodness yet?

Sorry to disappoint you then for this is no more brutal than a swat from a dehydrated kitten in the world of IPAs. It's a good looking pour with a nose that like a 5am crack fiend initially babbles all manner of fevered claims about grapefruit and lush grasslands, but soon subsides into a coma. With just 68 IBU on the tally, perhaps most of the hops here are added late?

The beer to taste is like a reasonably flat sort of basic IPA. There is a bit of bitterness but it's all high-end front of the mouth stuff with no backing juiciness to back it up. It reminds me distinctly of our very first homebrew using proper hops and the brew-in-a-bag method. That beer was good enough to make us start a brewery, yes.. but I wouldn't sell it, least of all under the moniker "Brutal" in the modern USA marketplace.

Speaking of which, it's true this beer has been around some time by the looks - but that isn't to say it hasn't been updated. Indeed, it used to be called Brutal Bitter, which makes significantly more sense given the UK-centric grain bill and overall lack of balls. So what's the reason to change the name? If I was a cynic, I'd -- oh wait, I am a cynic. They've changed the name because IPAs are far more popular.

This is not brutal, is borderline IPA, but isn't a bitter either. Buy something else. 5.5