Rogue Brewing Company produces many fine ales, several of which have won awards and special recognition from beer critics around the world. This beer, Younger’s Special Bitter was originally called Rogue Ale (Epinions hasn’t updated the name yet). It’s brewed in the tradition of an English Bitter Ale, and it was named after the late Bill Younger, brother of Don Younger who owns the infamous Horse Brass Pub in Portland, Oregon. Rogue brewmaster John Maier formulated the recipe for this beer with Bill Younger in the late 1980’s.
Basic Characteristics of This Ale:
This beer pours to a copper/amber color with the dry aroma of hops, and it’s a little bit cloudy. It’s also a very foamy beer! When I noticed how much foam I was getting, I assumed that my bottle must have been shaken, so I opened up another one and poured it into my glass. It was just as foamy as the first one, and I wasn’t pouring the beer aggressively. You need to be careful when you pour, or else you will easily overflow your glass. I was forced to pour my beer just a few ounces at a time, to avoid spilling it all over myself. Even a small amount of beer, like maybe 3 ounces, poured into the glass, caused it to sprout a head of foam like a monster emerging from the dead. I like a beer to have a good head of foam, but I thought that this beer was a little over- carbonated. The thick, sturdy foam took some time to settle in the glass, like you might imagine. Based on appearance, it looked like a glass of Samuel Adams Boston Lager.
The ingredients used in Younger’s Special Bitter include two- row Harrington and Crystal malt; and Willamette and Kent Golding Hops. I would describe the flavor of this beer as a mixture of caramel and a little bit of fruit, and the finish as dry, bitter, and a little bit alcoholic. It tasted like a mixture of Oktoberfest and American Pale Ale and it reminded me of the taste of a batch of homemade ale that I once brewed. The alcohol level by volume is 4.6%, which isn’t that high, but it tasted like it was higher, due to the dryness of the finish. This beer has an IBU level of 35, but I would have predicted that it was a little higher than that.
Food Compatibility:
This type of taste would be compatible with only a few types of food. I would recommend drinking this with red meat dishes, and with salty snacks. It definitely doesn’t go with sweet foods and I don’t think it would taste very good with white meats, either. The bitter edge limits its versatility.
Final Thoughts:
Rogue Younger’s Special Bitter is a typical English Bitter with a slightly matly body and a bitter bite in the finish. If you’re the type who likes primarily rich, malty sweet beer, then you won’t like this product at all. I did find that the flavor became a little more smooth and more acceptable when it was allowed to warm up a little bit, to around 50 degrees, which is how English bitters are commonly drank. But even then, the taste was distinctly bitter.
I thought this beer was a fairly good representative of its style. I knew, before I took my first sip, what type of taste to expect so I wasn’t surprised at all by the bitterness. However, the flavor will likely surprise those who are novices to the world of craft beer.
Younger’s Special Bitter gets a thumbs- up from me. It’s not the greatest English bitter I’ve tasted, but it’s good enough to warrant a sample or two.
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