Dark days call for dark beers, and in that spirit we kick off a series of three podcasts on stouts with an episode on Imperial Stouts. We start by reaching out to our friend Nick Smith, co-founder and head brewer at Steam Machine Brewing in the UK, for a fascinating discussion on the historical origins of the style. Nick helps us separate marketing myth from reality and sheds some light on the imperial stouts of old with a historical recreation from Harvey’s Brewing. We then jump across the pond and see how American brewers in the 1990’s reimagined and reinvigorated imperial stouts, as exemplified by North Coast’s classic Old Rasputin. In the second half of the show, homebrewer Bill Koeppen joins us as we trace the path that these big, decadent beers have taken in the 21st century – from barrel aging to adjuncts to the modern pastry stouts. Along the way we sample heavy hitting stouts from Epic, Wolf’s Ridge, and Seventh Son. In the last segment of the show, Bill shares some of his experiences homebrewing imperial stouts.
Don’t forget you can find this episode and earlier ones on our podcast page, as well as Apple Music, Podbean or Spotify. Just search for the Pat’s Pints/Mark’s Mugs – All Things Beer podcast, and don’t hesitate to leave a comment or a rating.
Beers Featured
- Harvey’s Imperial Extra Double Stout
- North Coast Old Rasputin
- Epic Triple Barrel Big Bad Baptist
- Wolf’s Ridge Breakfast Barrel Dire Wolf
- Seventh Son Qahwah
- Kontrarian Fist of Rage (homebrew)
- Kontrarian Forager (homebrew)
Related Content
Pat's Pints 
Leave a Reply