Gordon Biersch, Rockville, Maryland
Robust Porter (2016)
5.8%
20170106 (Our Beers of the Day in January look back to some of our favorites of 2016)
Gordon Biersch used to try to replicate its beers in all its branches. While that meant you could depend on finding your favorite GB beer no matter which city you were it, it rather defeated the whole idea of local beer. It’s true that most beers are better fresh, but a good distributor can get a beer to your local tap that was brewed more recently than many of the slower moving brewpub beers. Gordon Biersch finally wised up, in part, we suspect, due to the influence of the Rock Bottom chain it purchased. Today beers not only vary from location to location, but from year to year as brewers play musical chairs among the thousands of new American breweries.
One of our favorite local brewers, Christian Layke, brewed a fine robust porter during his time in Rockville. A stronger than average porter was once called a stout porter, but that evolved into “stout” which is often anything but strong, so “robust” now signifies a full bodied porter that rings in at a bit over the world-standard 5% abv.
Christian has moved on to start his own venture. Nassim Sultan, formerly of Lost Rhino, is the new brewer at Gordon Biersch and he’s off to a fine start. We’re looking forward to his winter offerings.
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