Mr. Robusto
Conshohocken Brewing Company

Conshohocken Brewing Co. "Mr. Robusto"
16 fl. oz. can "CANNED ON 10/07/21 13:24". Sampled on 02-05-22.

Notes via stream of consciousness: My wife decided that she wanted to try a "Girl Scout Cookie Flight" from Conshochocken Brewing Co. (not really my kind of thing) but they gave her the wrong beers so I now have two cans of Mr. Robusto to enjoy. On the upside they only charged her $14 instead of the $21 it was supposed to be, so they were only $3.50 each - and she still got her Girl Scout Cookies! It's poured an opaque brown-black body beneath... well there was a head when I poured it but now it's gone. Wow. If I hold the glass up to the light I can see some brown coming through near the top, and also that it's cloudy. I'll chalk the lack of head up to a non-beer-clean glass although I don't see any bubbles sticking anywhere inside, which is usually a good indicator of that. Moving forward I'm finding a lot of chocolate in the aroma! It smells like a dessert beer. How strong is this? - 5.4%. Well, there's a lot of malt going on. Apart from the chocolate all I'm getting is a little bit of roastiness. I can see why they wanted to pair this with cookies. ... Um, I'm informed by my wife that this isn't even one of the beers that's supposed to be a part of the pairing so I'm wrong on that. My bad. I'm sure it could work with something though. OK, on to the taste... as expected it's richly chocolatey with an ashen roastiness and stiff bitterness. There's a slight bit of fruitiness to it as well, and a touch of caramel. It's very English in nature, at least in my opinion. On that note, it's got a very mild carbonation to it which at least partially explains the disappearing head. Going back to the English thing, it really reminds me of a beer that I had at the Ship & Mitre pub in Liverpool some years ago. I only had a half pint back then but it takes me right back to there, looking at the beer list inside the entrance way beside the bar room trying to decide what to order. It's medium bodied, and super smooth. It finishes dry with a little bit of chocolatey sweetness lingering for quite a while. I won't complain - and now it turns out that I actually have two more of these to enjoy! Nicely done.
Review #7,771

 

Poured into a becher pint glass, the appearance was a great looking dark brown close to black color with an eggshell white to almost tan foamy head softly dissipating. Left some mild messy lace here and there.
The aroma had some roasty and sweet nuts up front with a mellow malted chocolate grainy character playing with coffee bean notes.
The flavor carried a fairly good blend of the roasty coffee beans into that chocolate character. Some sweetness with some dark toast. Modest aftertaste of coffee beans, dark chocolate and sweet grains.
The mouthfeel was about medium bodied, perhaps just a touch under. Good carbonation and sessionability. Enough smoothness with an appropriate dryness.
Overall, pretty nice porter that I would have again.

Today, I am CANcentrating on The CANQuest's (tm) problem children. They are those beers who do not know how to behave in (especially) warm/hot weather & decide to test the limits of their aluminum CANtainer. If I CAN identify them in time, I will move them up in the queue of the backlog & throw them into the reefer in the hopes of salvaging it. Other times, I only hear a metallic "TING!" followed by a gushing explosion. 8={} In those cases, the CAN is dumped, rinsed & placed in The CANQuest (tm) Bag o' Shame to be displayed whenever I go for a lecture.

From the CAN: "GO Where the Path Takes You"; "Robust Porter"; "Mr. Robusto is a deliciously dark Robust Porter for the Malt Lovers! Chocolately and rich with a silky smooth soul. Domo arigato!"

One of the pleasures that I derive from the Crack! & Glug of a CAN of either/both a Porter and/or a Stout is the pseudo-cascade, often leading to the formation of head. In this case, it worked, but only to the point that it formed just over a finger of roiling, soapy, foamy, light-brown head with very limited retention. Color was Black/Opaque (SRM = 44), allowing ZERO light penetration. Nose was rich with a chocolaty coffee-like bitterness. Robust, indeed! Mouthfeel was thin-to-medium, only a step or two past watery. The taste was much like the descriptors in the Style Guide - "... bitter and roasted … [with a] caramel and malty sweetness". Cadbury used to make a bar that was simply caramel enrobed in milk chocolate. Here, it was caramel enrobed in dark chocolate with a slight infusion of coffee. Mmm. Def NOT a Stout!Finish on this one was semi-dry to dry, robust and smoky while retaining a caramel and chocolate sweetness. I gotta admit - even for its being a problem child, I liked this one better than the previous PB RIS & the MexiCAN Chile Porter. This one would be one that I would drink again. The PB RIS, not so much & the Chile Porter only during the Winter as part of my double-boiler experiment. YMMV.

Look: Opaque brown-black with a tan-brown, rapidly receding head.
Smell: Dark chocolate, roasted malt, nuts, coffee.
Taste: Chocolate, sweet roasted malt.
Feel: Thin- to medium-bodied, creamy, light, and carbonated.
Overall: A really nice porter.

 

A: A spongy 2 finger dark tan leather toned colored head is steady on the hold, with a porous bready textured surface. A coffee-ish colored pour sits a dense black in the vessel. Thin film lacing.

S: Soft chocolate scents, dried walnut shells, with a fresh cocoa-milky sweetness. Average strength, a bit reserved with a silty soft bitterness that follows.

T: Very sweet flavor, cocoa-chocolate milk flavor. Soft fresh roastiness, fresh bean grinds, oily bitterness with an earthy finish of nice strength.

M: Medium body, some milkiness, with a warming charred bitterness upon the swallow. Low carbonation content.

O: Sweet start, with a soft earthy charred finish. A decent robust offering of good flavor. 84 seems about right here.

 

(draft pour in 13 oz glass)

textbook(?) robust porter - slick roastiness; naked roasted barley flavors... its composite grain character is homebrew quality, little depth or uniqueness

The dark brown almost black beer pours out into a Duvel glass with a 1/2’ dark tan head that recedes visibly to a small ring of foam and an irregular island of foam on the liquid while leaving no lacing on the sides of the glass. By midway through the beer the ring is almost invisible and the irregular island of foam has become thinner and smaller. At first sipping creates a few scattered patches of lacing on the sides of the glass that soon slide back down to the liquid.

The aromas are light and mostly about some dark chocolate, a touch of rye bread and just a bit of coffee from the roasted malts.

The flavors are much as expected from the nose but more assertive. They focus on the slightly bitter dark roasted malt with its dark chocolate and lightly bitter black coffee. There’s also some lightly toasted rye bread character. The sweetness from the malt and the dark chocolate/coffee bitterness are in a nice balance and there is no burnt character showing at all.

The mouthfeel is on the light side of medium bodied and mostly smooth with only some very light finely bubbled carbonation. The finish is fairly long as the dark chocolate and the light sweetness in the background slowly fade a way leaving the palate with just a bit of earthiness and an almost empty feeling that invites another sip.

Overall I found this a good workman-like beer that seems well made and is enjoyable to drink. I’d happily have another. But, that said, if I had a choice I’d not pick it over, say, the Smuttynose Robust Porter.

I tried this on cask at The Standard Tap in Philadelphia. It poured an opaque dark with thin tan head which dissipated over time and did not leave any lace. The scent had hints of earth and roast. The taste was nicely balanced and easy to drink. The mouthfeel was lighter in body with smooth carbonation. Overall its a decent beer.