Imperial Stout

Tier A · BJCP 20C · Ale, fermented warm. The strongest member of the stout family, by a wide margin.

ABV

8-12%

IBU

50-90

SRM

30-40

Serve

50-55F

Glass

Snifter

Pour

8-10 oz

Identify

Jet black and completely opaque, sometimes very dark reddish brown at the edge. A deep tan to dark brown head that forms well and then sinks, which is normal here. Tilt the glass and the beer leaves slow streaks running back down the wall. Full to very full and thick, closer to a liqueur than to a pint. Roast, dark chocolate and dried fruit arrive together, then a warmth that spreads through your chest a few seconds after you swallow. Bitterness and sweetness both run high and hold each other up.

Place

London, 1700s. Strong export porter shipped to the Russian court from 1781 by the brewery that became Barclay Perkins. Nearly extinct by the mid 1900s, then rebuilt by American craft brewers.

Cause

Alcohol comes from sugar. A brewer who wants a 10% beer has to get roughly twice as much sugar into the kettle as normal, and then find a yeast willing to work through it. Everything difficult about this style follows from that one requirement. An American IPA at 65 IBU tastes sharply bitter. An Imperial Stout at 65 IBU does not.

Confused with

American Stout, which has the same roast at half the weight. Baltic Porter, which is nearly as strong and far less roasty. English Barleywine, which is just as strong with no roast at all. Foreign Extra Stout, which sits between this and an Irish Stout.

Numbers

An Imperial Stout is a stout brewed with two to three times the usual amount of sugar in the kettle. Everything else follows from that. The strength, the thickness, the price, the small glass, and the fact that it is one of the very few beers worth putting away for a year. Two things, and neither is a flavour.

Will you like it and Try

Espresso, or very strong black coffee. The roast in the beer is the same kind of flavour, and it is the closest everyday match. Dark chocolate at 85% or above, including the bitterness that comes with it. Dried fruit: figs, prunes, raisins, dates. Strong ale yeast produces exactly these flavours when it is pushed hard.

Order and Pair

Ask for the small pour. Most bars serve this style in 8 to 10 ounces, and if they offer you a pint it is worth checking that they meant to. Ask the strength before you order. The gap between 8% and 13% is the difference between one drink and two and a half, and both numbers turn up under the same style name.

Judge, Myth and Remember

The roast reads as coffee and dark chocolate rather than as ash or as burnt rubber. The alcohol is warm rather than sharp. Warmth in the chest is right. A solvent smell like nail polish is not. Sweetness and bitterness hold each other up. Neither should be winning outright. The body is full and smooth.