Big, Bad, Red.
Bigger, Badder, Stronger. It’s a common theme in craft brewing today. Style lines are blurred and new styles are created. We’ve discussed the idea of the Cascadian Dark Ale on the Hop Press in the past, but This weekend I tried Speakeasy’s newest one-off beer, Betrayal Ale. Big, malty, incredibly hoppy, it’s a beer without a style, but no less enjoyable. What style is this beer? Is ere an appropriate name? What would define this style?
The idea of an aggressive, strong, hoppy amber or red ale was most famously done first by Stone with Arrogant Bastard. Obviously bigger in every way than the amber ales being produced at the time, Arrogant Bastard stood alone as a style.
For the longest time, I referred to the style as a “Homebrewer’s Delight,” as I believe all homebrewers have brewed that batch that started as their favorite beer, but they added a little extra malt, tossed in the remaining bag of hops, dry-hopped it, and basically let the recipe run wild. The result would be a bit of a mess, but it was rich, sweet, strong and hoppy. The color was a dark amber in many cases and usually lended itself to being drank by the pint, even if the strength of the beer should have discouraged such behavior.
Over the past few years, numerous breweries have released their own versions of this malty hop bomb. The question still remains, what would you call this style? RateBeer includes all of these beers in the “American Strong Ale” category. A quick look at the top beers of this category show that this is more of a catch all than a true style.
So what would define this unnamed style? Descriptions of Imperial Red or Imperial Amber imply somewhere to start, but that may only help to define the lower limits. If we assume these beers must be of approximately 7.5% in strength and at least 50 IBU, at what point do these beers stop being imperial amber ales and begin being hoppy barleywines?
For my two cents, the color is obviously a requirement. Amber or red, it must be darker than your IPA but lack the brown body or opacity that would move us away from an easily identifiable style. Anything between 7-10% ion strength should be considered with a hopping significant enough to match and show itself against such a rich malt body. Lastly, it has to feel right in a pint glass. There has to be the impression of a sessionable drink, or at least one you want a full pint of, for this beer to fit amongst the Imperial Red style.
Oh, and I like the style Imperial Red. While I prefer amber ales to red ales the majority of the time, there’s something about Imperial Red ale that just sounds more appealing.
Where do you sit on this topic? Do you have requirements of these beers?
This article was based on a previous article written on BrewedForThought.com
2 Comments to “Big, Bad, Red.”
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double imperial mild FTW
Imperial Red – sounds very 1950′s McCarthy era!