CT Column 27/04/2011: Fit for an Empress

WITH winter on its way it’s now the season when many brewers start to release their big rich winter seasonal brews.
It’s now an understood convention that the biggest most intense example of a beer style gets labelled ‘imperial’. The term comes from the strong intensely roasty and hoppy stouts that were exported from the UK to the Russian empire in the 18th century. The myth goes that Catherine the II of Imperial Russia took such a liking to these strong export stouts that she imported them for consumption in her royal court and accordingly they became know as Imperial Stouts. Whatever the truth it makes for a good story.
Right now we have two locally produced beers that broadly sit in the Imperial stout family. Out as a very limited tap only release from Taranaki’s mike’s (small m) brewery we have Imperial Porter. Clocking in at 8%abv mike’s Imperial Porter is the base beer that goes into whiskey barrels to make mike’s Whiskey Porter. With a complex aroma of milk chocolate, toasty malt and a hint of savoury meatiness and a smooth rich rounded cocoa tinged palate mike’s Imperial Porter is the perfect antidote to a southerly blast on a chilly autumn night.
From Blenheim’s 8 Wired we have the 2011 vintage of i-Stout at the appropriately warming 10%abv. Pouring a rich viscous black hue with a voluminous tan head, i-Stout offers up a complex aroma of hop driven stonefruit, light espresso, and chocolate caramel. In the mouth the beer is warming, with more stonefruit, cocoa, roasted malt flavours and a long dry finish. Both these beers will make a great accompaniment to berry based deserts, and sharp aged cheeses.
Cheers

Rushin Stout 08

I noticed the new vintage of Pink Elephant Rushin Imperious Stout at Regionals the other day and had to pick up a couple of bottles. I initially intended to sling them both in the cellar and try to forget about them. Then other night as I was sweltering (god I look forward to winter, that my chillies, eggplant and tomatoes are growing is about the only consolation) I had the perverse urge to drink a bottle.

Imperious Rushin Stout 2008

Opens with a pop and a hiss. Pours a viscous black with a tight tan head and an oily slickness. Aroma features smoky bacon, berry fruit a green hop note and roasty coffee. On the palate there is sweet malt, a saccharine slightly unfermented note, smoky savoury notes, a hint of ash , burnt currents all leading to a bitter hoppy finish.

Harvey’s Imperial Extra Double Stout

Last Thursday I brewed this years batch of The Merchant of the Devil , my own Imperial Stout. The brew went very well and despite suffering the only stuck mash I have ever had with my current mash tun set up I achieved an O.G of 1111, and was able to make a small beer of O.G. 1056 from the late runnings. That evening I celebrated by opening the bottle of Harvey’s Imperial Extra Double Stout that Greig had brought me back from Sussex. Let me tell you this beer pushed my buttons, if only I had some cases of it.

Harvey’s Imperial Extra Double Stout 2003 (9%abv)
2003 vintage, Pours a viscous pitch black with the faintest disappearing wispy head. The aroma features a stunning cornucopia of aromas. Dried fruit, raisins, prunes, figs, a distinctive sour fruit character reminiscent of the Rodenbach beers, Passionfruit, iron and a touch of saltyness blended a delicious funky brettanomyces character. Complex to say the least. On the palate there is luscious aged malt, a surprising level of body considering the sour/brett character in the nose, a salty note, some passionfruit and iron, a suggestion of sourness, roasty malt notes and a hint of autolysised yeast. Outstanding beer, my beer of the year in fact.

A new Merchant is born.

I’m sipping on a glass of my latest vintage of Imperial Stout as a reward for having bottled the 2007 vintage. Last years batch of the Merchant was brewed last November, since then it has been sitting in a corny keg in my cellar. Today I primed the 9.4% abv black beast with some sugar and ran her into 50 nip bottles. I think last years vintage is the best yet, roasty, bitter with hints of raisins and chocolate. After 4 or 5 years of brewing this style I think I am starting to get there. Fine tuning a running beer is easy, it takes a hell of a lot longer to perfect an imperial recipe.

Imperial Stout on my mind

As is probably clear from this blog one of my favourite styles is Russian Imperial Stout. In an ideal world my cellar would be over flowing with them, however the best I usually achieve are a couple of vintages of my own and the odd bottle of Pink Elephant Rushin Imperious. However recently I have had two very exciting additions.

The first came from the left over stocks of beer from the NZIBA, and came in the form of a new world hop charged Rogue Imperial Stout. It seems so American to present an 11% abv beer in a huge 750ml serve. I tried the beer during judging and it was impressive and very definitely wore its American hopping on its sleeve.

The second addition to the cellar has come in the form of a bottle of 2003 Harvey’s Imperial Extra Double Stout lovingly carried back from the UK for me in Greig’s suitcase. A classic of the style and perhaps the closest to Courage RIS I will ever get to try, I’m going to cellar it a while longer before I try it.

Of course putting beers into the cellar makes up the will power part of the process, however there is also the very enjoyable ritual of pulling out a bottle when the time seems right. Recently I pulled one of my precious few bottles of the first ever all grain batch of Merchant of the Devil. Brewed in January 2006 I was playing with ‘spiking’ big beers with Champaign yeast at the time. Primary fermentation was with s-04 and then the wine yeast was added to the secondary fermentor where The Merchant sat for 6 weeks before being primed and bottled. For the first 18 months the beer exhibited a slightly funky estery character from the Champaign yeast and an enthusiastic condition, however as she has aged The Merchant has mellowed significantly. At two and a ½ years she is warming, rich, smooth, and complex. It’s a tragedy that there is only one more bottle left.

Imperial Stout Tasting Number 2

What better tasting to conduct in mid summer than a range of Imperial Stouts?, well you didn’t think I was going to do wheat beers did you?

With the release of Pink Elephants second vintage of Rushin Imperious Stowt Adam and I decided that we would put the 2 vintages up against each other, I thought I would put out samples from the conditioning tank of the 2 batches of Merchant of the Devil as well.

Comparative tastings always seem to highlight things in the beers you are tasting that you might miss when tasting them in isolation.

Rushin Imperious Stowt 2006 10.5%abv:

Aroma features dark chocolate, bubblegum, artificial lime essence which as the beer warms in the glass almost takes on a brett character

On the palate there is sweet malt, a touch of sour acidity, a confected chocolate/caramel note, roast malt and a peppery finish.

Rushin Imperious Stowt 2007 11%abv:

Aroma features dark chocolate, a lactic milky note, black pepper, and a smoky note like sniffing a smokers jacket.

On the palate this vintage seems much sweeter than last years did when young, it certainly has more body, a caramel milkshake note blends with chocolate and a perceptible although reduced roast character.

Merchant of the Devil 2007/1 11%abv and 9.6%abv:

Aroma features an estery mix of dark fruits, plums some berry fruit, chocolate liqueur, and a bready whole grain note.

On the palate sweet malt, chocolate and dried fruit give way to a slightly acrid roasty and bitter finish.

You can find my notes for Rushin Imperious Stowt 2006 when it was young here and an account of the brewing of Merchant of the Devil here. Notes on the first Russian Imperial Stout tasting can be found here.

The Session – Winter Warmers

This Session posed something of a problem to me as it demanded a post about winter when here in the Antipodes it is in fact summer!. What was I to do ? imagine it was winter and write a piece on strong milds, pokered ale and firesides? It all seemed a little fake, just a bit staged until it struck me, I had a task ahead of me in preparation for next winter which was perfect to document for The Session.

Ever since the first time I leafed through Michael Jackson’s 1988 ‘The New World Guide to Beer’ , incidentally that occurred in mid winter beside an open fire, I have been captivated by Russian Imperial Stout. I travelled to Auckland in an attempt to try the Romanov Stout brewed at Galbraiths by the Australis Brewing Co, only to find the beer retired and my first ever pint of real ale waiting to change my life forever. I scoured bottle stores searching for Sam Smiths version, I eventually had to travel to Melbourne Australia before I got a chance to try it, I sent a shopping list with a friend who was visiting the UK and back she brought me a bottle of Pitfield’s version. Of course with these extensive breaks between drinks it became clear that I had to brew one my self, and so Merchant of the Devil was born.

I try to brew 2 vintages of The Merchant a year, its not a light undertaking as the brew day tends be at least 12 hours long, sometimes more, maturation time prior to bottling tends to last at least a month, tying up precious kegs and then there is the monotonous task of bottling to be carried out. There is however no question as to whether its worth it.

I use a multiple mash method to achieve the 1100 plus original gravity required for this intense ale. This means that first a grist of pale malts is mashed and the wort from this is then used to strike a second mash containing a mix of pale malts and roasted malts. It’s a time consuming method dictating a 4.30am alarm call but it results in unique rich enveloping malt character.

The recipe calls for a base of marris otter pale ale malt with a touch of pilsner malt with large amounts of roasted barley, dark crystal and chocolate malts providing the roasted coffee chocolate, leather and tobacco character that makes this style so special. There is a huge amount of New Zealand Super Alpha hops added all at the 60 minute point of the boil providing plentiful bitterness but leaving the malts and yeast to dominate the aroma and flavour of the beer.

5/11/07 Day beforehand prep. Grist for the first mash is weighted out and put through the mill.

6/11/07 Brew Day. 4.30 am and the gumboots are waiting.

First mash completed. Second and third dark mash's to follow.

The finished product. OG 1106 first kettle, OG 1094 second kettle.