Imperial Pilsner? Sounds effed up. But pilsner being one of my favorite styles, I had to try it. The fact that it's from Rogue, one of the most solid breweries in the US, makes it even more of a must.
From one of Rogue's imperial series ceramic flip-top bottles, it pours a hazy, unfiltered reddish amber, with a huge cascading light tan head that stays for a long time. Good carbonation.
Smells grassy, with a very subtle sweet maltiness that comes across as a very light bread smell. Grassy. Did I mention grassy? Hugely grassy.
Grassy. I wouldn't describe the initial hit as bitter so much as I would twangy. Tart, not citrus. Hits you with tartness on the top of the tongue, then follows with an excellent bitter aftertaste. Fairly clean finish for such a big beer. Great medium to heavy body. (Burp) Grassy.
I'm a little confused. It has less of the pilsner funk than I thought it should have, but I love this beer. As big and unfiltered as it is, it's still amazingly crisp. The alcohol (more than 9%) is also completely absent, a difficult task in a lighter-style (save for the imperial), but I've had impy stouts that had more of an alcohol bite.
This is probably the only beer in the Rogue XS series that I'll come back to. They're all good, but they're also all expensive, and this is the only one that rates, in my book.
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