Talk:Imperial stout

Proposed Merge
I am proposing that this article gets merged into Stout. This article is fairly small, and having information on all the stout styles in one article would be helpful to people looking for that info. We can redirect this article to the new one, as well. Cheers, RobLinwood 01:25, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I am withdrawing this proposal now, as a result of the discussion in Talk:Stout, among other things. RobLinwood 01:28, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Picture
I dont have a good picture of an Imperial Stout, if you have one please change the pic.

More info on the beer and less examples
How about more info on the beer and less examples, look at India Pale Ale for an example.12.20.127.229 17:42, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

"Courage" Imperial Russian Stout
"Courage" Imperial Russian Stout presumably means Barclay's Russian Imperial Russian Stout. The full name of the Courage brewery company is Courage Barclay and Simmons. Courage, who had a brewery on Bankside in Southwark merged with the Barclay company and later the Reading-based Simmons company. If you look carefully at the old immediately post-war British films set in London, The Blue Lamp for example, you will see pubs with the Barclay livery in the background of street scenes. Barclay's Russian Imperial Stout was available into the Seventies. It was one of very few bottled beers to have a vintage, usually two to three years older than the current date. It had a very strong and distinctive flavour, and was both strong and expensive. It was superb to use in casseroles with beef or oysters, though purists will regard that as a waste. The link to "Courage" ought to link to the brewery, now merged with Scottish and Newcastle, rather than to courage meaning fortitude.

You're right that it was originally Barclay's Imperial Russian Stout. Even after production was moved from their Park Street brewery to the Courage brewery in Horsleydown in 1958, it continued to be labelled Barclay's. The name was only changed to Courage in 1969.

Coincidentally, I was looking through the archives of the Park Street brewery last weekend and found a brewing log for Imperial Brown Stout (as it was called internally in the brewery). So I know the exact recipe used in 1851. I'm sure home brewers would be fascinated by it. I certainly hadn't expected what I read.Patto1ro 16:50, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Arguing over the number of examples
While it does on the surface seem somewhat "unfair" to list three beers from the UK, where it was invented, and twelve from the US, one must consider the larger picture. If there are four times as many imperial stouts produced in the United States, or four times as many widely-known imperial stouts originate from the United States, then yes, it probably is proper to list more from the United States.

In addition, this style is not one that is dependent on any local conditions, such water from a particular source, natural yeasts, or the like. In that, the place of origin becomes less important to the overall presentation of the beer. As long as there are a couple examples from the place of origin, the need for a "local component" will have been satisfied. └ OzLawyer / talk ┐ 15:07, 15 December 2006 (UTC)


 * I actually requested User:Mikebe to add more UK examples. What gets my goat is his advocating having six examples from Scandinavia and two from the US. It's like having two examples from Rhode Island and two from California and calling that "fair and balanced". &mdash; goethean &#2384; 15:34, 15 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Well, that is the senatorial way. But you're right, with Scandinavia having a population of less than one-tenth that of the United States, it would seem somewhat ridiculous to insist that they should have three times the representation as the US. └ OzLawyer / talk ┐ 15:55, 15 December 2006 (UTC)