Rocket Fuel
8th Wonder Brewery

Rocket FuelRocket Fuel
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From:
8th Wonder Brewery
 
Texas, United States
Style:
American Porter
Ranked #42
ABV:
4.6%
Score:
91
Ranked #7,312
Avg:
4.08 | pDev: 9.56%
Reviews:
34
Ratings:
189
Status:
Active
Rated:
Dec 21, 2023
Added:
Feb 17, 2014
Wants:
  16
Gots:
  63
Houston's ORIGINAL Vietnamese Coffee Porter. Cafe Sua Da of beer! A Greenway Coffee Co. collaboration brew.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by Dusten2015:
Photo of Dusten2015
Reviewed by Dusten2015 from Texas

3.88/5  rDev -4.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.75
Very drinkable, glad to finally have it canned!

L: Standard brown, carb is nice.

S: Coffee, i get a bit of caramel, but maybe i'm just looking for it.

T:Awesome, i'm a huge coffee fan, and love having this readily available.

F: a little lacking here i thought, it seems to start out frothy and strong, but mellows out too quickly for my taste.

O: A great drinkable beer to have standing-by. Probably my favorite from the brewery, and my wife absolutely loves it.
Apr 22, 2016
More User Ratings:
Photo of flagmantho
Reviewed by flagmantho from Washington

3.88/5  rDev -4.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
I had this beer on-tap in a chalice at the brewery in Houston.

Appearance:  rich dark brown with a thin layer of tan foam atop. It looks like a porter!

Smell:  nice malty aroma with a bit of caramel and roasty character, and a mild coffee character that is just enough to add a nice highlight. Well done.

Taste:  a little sweet malt, and a little dryer roasty character, along with that mild coffee character.  I like it, but honestly, the coffee and roasty elements render this beer just a little too astringent and acidic for my taste.

Mouthfeel:  medium body with a decent carbonation and creaminess.

Overall:  I like the roastiness and the restrained coffee characteristics of this beer on their own — I’m particularly impressed by the subtle yet recognizable coffee — but the acidity is just a bit much for me. So I’ll say this is overall a good beer, it just isn’t great for my personal palate.
Dec 21, 2023
Photo of MHL81
Rated by MHL81 from Illinois

3.77/5  rDev -7.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
Draft shaker pint. A little flat. Coffee tastes overwhelms the porter.
Jun 09, 2022
 
Rated: 4.02 by TWStandley from Massachusetts

Nov 12, 2021
 
Rated: 3.93 by SViterileroux74 from Texas

Jan 23, 2021
 
Rated: 4.18 by STAYSEE from Texas

Oct 14, 2020
 
Rated: 4.23 by kkarimi from Texas

Jun 19, 2020
Photo of Logicaldx
Reviewed by Logicaldx

4.35/5  rDev +6.6%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
I’m not going to go into all the technical BS. It is absolutely delicious. Great when really cold, smooth coffee flavor. Is sweet. But at 4.6 and it only comes in a 4 pack for more than any 6 pack they are crazy for charging that. It should be a 6 pack at standard cost. On draft it is just great, a must try
Apr 01, 2020
 
Rated: 4.04 by RiceOwls27 from Texas

Mar 26, 2020
 
Rated: 4.05 by WillieThreebiers from Connecticut

Mar 12, 2020
 
Rated: 4.02 by HopxHunter

Feb 01, 2020
Photo of Darkmagus82
Reviewed by Darkmagus82 from Texas

3.49/5  rDev -14.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5
Served on nitro tap in a pint glass
Appearance – The beer is served a nearly completely black color with a small foamy white head. The head fades leaving some foamy lace on the sides of the glass.
Smell – The aroma of the brew is big of a coffee and roasted malt smell mixed with some aromas of caramel and a touch of molasses. Along with these smells comes a little bit of milky smell along with a touch of vanilla.
Taste – The taste begins very sweet with tons of sweeter caramel, sweet crème, vanilla, and a big coffee and roasted malt flavor. Along with these flavors comes some light char and toast, but these are rather light. All these tastes take the taste to the end, and with a touch of smoke, it leaves one with a very sweet coffee like taste to linger on the tongue.
Mouthfeel – Due to the nitro pour the body of the brew was more creamy with a thicker and feel. For the big sweet and roasted coffee tastes of the brew the feel is nice and makes for a robust and sweet, low abv sipper.
Overall – A little too heavy on the sweetness for me, but it would make for a nice dessert brew. One to try if you get a chance.
Dec 13, 2019
 
Rated: 3 by MrCPMJ from Texas

Nov 16, 2019
Photo of CodyBasden
Rated by CodyBasden from Texas

3.71/5  rDev -9.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3.5
Nice black look with tan head good lacing no retention, very strong coffee smell, very strong coffee taste, very thin barely any carbonation
Oct 26, 2019
 
Rated: 4.19 by Chuckdiesel24 from Illinois

Sep 23, 2019
 
Rated: 4.39 by Valkyrie23 from Texas

Jul 25, 2019
 
Rated: 4.04 by Taphouse_Traveler from Florida

Jul 06, 2019
 
Rated: 4 by thegreatnicoli from Texas

Jun 07, 2019
Photo of Jugs_McGhee
Reviewed by Jugs_McGhee from Colorado

2.93/5  rDev -28.2%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 2.75 | overall: 2.75
$8.89 per 4 pack at Central Market, Austin TX. CAN: 12 fl oz pull-tab.

4.6% ABV. "Vietnamese coffee porter." "A Greenway Coffee Co Collaboration.""Infused with cold brew coffee and milk sugar."

BODY: Dark brown-black; cola. More opacity and an ink-black colour would be preferable. No yeast/lees are visible within. Appears filtered.

HEAD: Creamy khaki. Could be fuller and more robust, but it holds up for a good 6 minutes. Leaves light lacing as it recedes.

AROMA: Cold brew with low concomitant bitterness. Lactose sugar sweetness. Milky dark malts/malted milk balls. Maybe some chocolate malt sweetness. I'm not getting any overt roast either from barley or coffee.

Lacks the harsh bitterness and vague burnt notes of actual Vietnamese coffee, but it seems like a well executed coffee porter with an interesting enough coffee character though not a standout one per se.

Aromatic intensity is below average.

TASTE & TEXTURE: Drinks creamy, almost like a nitro stout, but also a bit thin, lacking the robust body and rich malt backbone of a proper porter. Creamy cold brew is there but it's fleeting; this beer doesn't really commit to its coffee flavour nor does it deliver on its Vietnamese coffee premise.

It's more a generic cold brew porter with minimal bitterness from either coffee or roasted barley; indeed, it's not roasty at all (to its detriment). But they didn't overdo it with the lactose sugar sweetness either. The beauty of Vietnamese coffee is that it's coffee brewed too strong (i.e. too bitter) and balanced out with condensed milk to bring two excesses into surprising harmony; this is not bold either with its coffee or with its lactose sugar, and the result is a timid disappointment of a flavour profile that doesn't reflect its purported inspiration at all.

Dark malt sweetness, a dollop of malted milk balls, and the briefest hint of mild cold brew is all it really brings to the table. In the coffee porter category, that just isn't enough (and at least a coffee stout would bring more roast).

OVERALL: It's not a bad brew by any means, just a very mild and simple one given its substyle. Coffee porters and stouts are styles rife with great expressions - often distributed widely (see Victory At Sea or Founders' Breakfast Stout) - and while nice enough and easy to drink, 8th Wonder's Rocket Fuel fails to hold a candle to any of the near-nationally distributed go-tos. Regionally, this gets crushed by the chicory/French Quarter coffee ales currently being put out by the best Louisiana breweries, and within Texas it'll get passed over in favour of beers like Lakewood's Temptress.

More commitment to coffee, better selected coffee, possible incorporation of additional flavours (particularly roast, but why not hazelnut, chicory, vanilla bean burnt malts, etc.?), and more dialed in balance is/are needed to really make this a contender. The big issue here is simple: it just doesn't taste like Vietnamese coffee.

C / AVERAGE
Apr 16, 2019
 
Rated: 4.78 by Hyun-hwan from Texas

Mar 18, 2019
Rocket Fuel from 8th Wonder Brewery
Beer rating: 91 out of 100 with 189 ratings