I cracked open my bottle of Rogue Imperial Porter and served it with my NY Strip Steak smothered in caramelized onions & mushrooms. I had purchased this beer as part of my search for a favorite porter. Recently I noted that Victory’s Storm King Stout was closer to the porter I am seeking than any other porter I’ve tried (from a bottle).  Rogue is one of my favorite craft brewers and I was hoping that at $15 a bottle, this would be the one.

But it wasn’t.

Once again, the primary flavor characteristic came from roasted/burnt barley. You CANNOT taste any malt sweetness behind the charcoal and it ruins what ever hop presence is there. This harsh bitterness is not what I’m looking for in a porter. From Rogue…

This is a huge mouthful of malt and hops. It has notes of bitter rich chocolate and hints of tar. A new hop called Summit was used to give it the perfect hop balance. This porter is the creme de la creme.

I started thinking to myself, I must be wrong, even though we already established that I can’t. Maybe I’m just misinformed… so I decided to look it up.

Robust Porter
Robust porters are black in color and have a roast malt flavor but no roast barley flavor. These porters have a sharp bitterness of black malt without a highly burnt/charcoal flavor. Robust porters range from medium to full in body and have a malty sweetness. Hop bitterness is medium to high, with hop aroma and flavor ranging from negligible to medium. Diacetyl is not acceptable. Fruity esters should be evident, balanced with roast malt and hop bitterness.

Brown Porter
Brown porters are mid to dark brown (may have red tint) in color. No roast barley or strong burnt/black malt character should be perceived. Low to medium malt sweetness is acceptable along with medium hop bitterness. This is a light to medium-bodied beer. Fruity esters are acceptable. Hop flavor and aroma may vary from being negligible to medium in character.

So I’m not misinformed, either.

Now, you can’t be wrong either… you might like this.  You might like to just add some ash from the fireplace, too. Why don’t you add some smoke flavor to it while you are at it. (Check back for my review of Stone’s Smoked Porter for the upcoming Session.)

I don’t like it. I like it bitter from hops and from dark malt, but it still must primarily taste like beer.

Rogue Imperial Porter is not a bad beer. The body, lacing, aroma and quality is top notch; I just don’t love whatever style of beer this is. And Rogue is not the only one.