Beer:30... Rivertown Brewing Roebling Imperial Robust Porter.

I do love history, and here in the Cincinnati area, there is lots of it. Case in point is the Roebling suspension bridge. Finished in 1866 connecting Covington Kentucky and Cincinnati Ohio, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. It is a distinctive landmark here in the Cincinnati area. Just look at a couple pictures of this historical landmark:

Image from 1870, from Wikipedia Commons.

Image from 2005, from Wikipedia Commons.

Enough with the bridge talk, lets get to the beer. Enter Rivertown Brewing Company's Roebling Imperial Robust Porter. Named after the very distinctive local landmark, this beer has big shoes to fill. Sadly, it does not fit the bill, or bridge, in this matter.

First off, I do like this beer. Nice notes of vanilla, chocolate, and coffee hit the taste buds in a pleasant manner. The flavors are very nice to the palate, but something is amiss. It is almost like the beer is flat. Not much carbonation going on with this one. Not that carbonation is a deal breaker, the mouth feel of this beer is not that interesting. It almost has a watery feel. The carbonation of this beer is the exact opposite of their Oatmeal Stout that I picked up last year. That beer had so much carbonation it tasted like a bad fountain soda. Another interesting aspect is that when poured, there is a very minimal head. What does bubble to the top is very thin, and bubbly it is. No lacing ended up on my glass after the thin head disappeared. Lastly, I would not call this an Imperial. That makes me think of big alcohol beers, and although I cannot find an ABV on this one, I doubt it is very high.

Hopefully, this is just a bad batch, or bad bottling. I really would like to try this on tap to see if there is any difference. Maybe it is the bad mojo of my Miller Lite San Diego Padres pint glass, since it is recommended that it is enjoyed out of a snifter? My next drink will be out of my snifter to compare. I feel that this beer has great potential, but just falls short of the huge historical shoes that it is trying to fill. I will keep trying Rivertown's products, hopefully I will find on that makes me happy.

Cheers!