The Empire Strikes Back

One thing you will notice as you scan the countless makes and models of craft beer on the shelves at your local store where craft beer is sold is a little word that seems to become more and more pervasive with each passing year. It is a word that found use in the brewing world with logical beginnings, but has taken a turn towards overuse in recent years. Of course, the word I’m talking about is “imperial.”

I find your lack of beer disturbing.

If you've ever had a beer with the word “imperial” on its label, you probably get it. Basically, in today’s brewing parlance, imperial simply means stronger than usual. Take, for example, an Imperial India Pale Ale, which is one of the more oft-entered styles in the Great American Beer Festival national competition every year. Stylistically, all that means is that the brewer has used more malt and hops than normal. There isn't even a set number attached to quantify how much more one has to use in order to call their brew imperial. All the brewer has to do is use more than a normal amount, and it becomes imperial.

Rasputin liked his beer dark, strong, and creepy.

This is sort of how the word came to be used in brewing in the first place. Back in the 1700s, British brewers brewed batches of their English stout porter ales extra strong for their friends in the Russian Imperial Court. Because these batches were made stronger, thus justifying the distinction, and they were sending them to the Russian Emperor, they slapped the tag “imperial” in front of stout, and a new style of beer was born. Of course, the Russians also called it imperial stout as it was coming from the British Empire, so it worked out for everyone involved.

Little did they know that 200 some odd years later, the American craft-brewing revolutionaries would get a hold of this little piece of history and run away with it. What started as a simple word to distinguish between the extra strong version intended for the cold-weather Russian Imperial Court and the normal version erupted into an entire universe of new styles. In today’s craft beer market, the word “imperial” can literally be found attached to any style of beer around, from stouts and IPAs to pilsner lagers and pumpkin ales.

This is, of course, a marketing strategy that breweries use in order to draw in more drinkers. There is a very common belief among beer drinkers that stronger means better. How else do you explain Bud Light Platinum? Clearly, AB/In-Bev is trying to capitalize on the ill-conceived notion that more alcohol means better beer. While higher alcohol or stronger taste are often characteristics of beer that is made correctly with quality ingredients, it’s not necessarily an indicator. Plus, at 6% ABV, we’re hardly talking earth-shattering. I suppose the next step for Budweiser is to release their Bud Light Imperial Light Lager, which will be nothing more than Bud Light Platinum with a final gravity of .001 degrees plato higher than normal. Losers.

A fine example of what American ingenuity does to an English and Russian creation.

As for advice from me on this topic, I say go out and enjoy imperial beers. I know the tone of this blog post thus far has been negative, as though I’m against the overuse of the word imperial, but I assure I am not. As always, be mindful of the marketing, but certainly don’t reject strong beers because of a seeming overuse of a word in an attempt to sell more beer. If the brewery has a reputation of doing things the right way, you can be sure that their imperial brews will be the top-shelf product of their flight, much in the same way that Johnny Walker uses colors to indicate quality (and price tag). Just remember when taking on an imperial version of the style in question that it will most likely be a heavy hitter, both in ABV and gravity, so be prepared to sip, and please sip responsibly.

Here’s to craft-brewed happiness… Cheers!