Rogue Youngers Special Bitter

Brewed by Rogue Ales
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Newport, Oregon USA

Bottle. Pour was amber, tah head. Nose had citrus and grapefruit hops. Taste also had malt backbone. Balanced body, smooth, good brew.

Bottled, pasteurised, 650ml. Clear redish amber colour with good bubbly head. I wasn’t expecting much from this, after all I live in the land of Bitter and this is an interloper, like selling ice to eskimos, but it really is a well crafted bottled Premium (or best) bitter. Light fragrant hops to the fore, lasting and citrusy, a pleasant light bitter malt background with hints of caramel. One of the better bottled bitters I have had, very nice.

12 oz bottle-pours a tan, creamy, rocky head. Color is hazy copper with a few tiny particles. Aroma is hops, citrus. Taste is hops, citrus, then malt comes through in the background nicely. Mild carbonation.

One pint, six ounce brown bottle purchased from Armanetti’s, Mundelein, IL. Clear amber ale having a small diminishing head with good lacing. Nice toffee and sweet malt aroma. Soft carbonation. Medium bodied that starts with light sweet malt and hop flavors. Middles with light bitterness. Finishes with light nutty malt flavor and lingering bitterness. Well-balanced, this is a good drinkable beer that goes well with food.

Bottle shared with tupalev -- courtesy of tupalev. Pours a cloudy dark orange with a small white head. Aroma has a strange hoppy smell -- it smelt like a grilled cheese sandwich to me! Flavour of hops, tea and yes -- grilled cheese. Such a strange beer, I really liked it.

Pours a nice reddish orange color. Aromas of nice citrus/grapefruit hops and sweet malts. Flavor starts nice crisp bitter hop and then mellows to a nice malt..

Bottle. I’d seen this in Sainsburys quite a few times and didn’t bother to buy it, it was fairly expensive and I hadn’t been that keen on some of the other Rogue’s I’d tried. Then I saw it reduced and thought well its now or never and I’m quite glad I got it. Citrus hops up front leading into a more piney earthy type bitterness in the body. Some of the malty yeast type flavours I havent been to impressed with in other Rogues but not on the same scale. I was quite suprised to see that the hops were Willamete (US fuggles?) and EKG as this seemed like US hops all the way.

Bottle from the Rogue pub in San Francisco shared with Blankboy. Nice deep sweet caramel malt and hop aroma. Deep dark orange, small off white head. Nice orange citrus and malt taste. There was an interesting tea like / maybe even grilled cheese quality to it as well. Certainly the mix of hops is interesting here. A solid representation of the ESB style here.