Imperial stout with high ibu?

[Dionysusforever]

I prefer the hoppier beers, but I love the decadence of an imperial stout. I want to brew an imperial but with higher ibu's like that of a pale ale, or maybe an ipa. Has anyone ever tried one?

 

[PolishStout]

I was kinda thinking about something like that the other day too!

I was thinking starting with a porter or stout might be too heavy to try to make hoppy and would taste weird. but what if you started with a pale ale or ipa and then threw in some dark malt? or use something of a mild darkness like an altbier and add in a bunch of hops?

I'm very new to this, so I don't know if any of what I said makes any brewing sense. but I'm just flavor brainstorming

 

[cjmurphy87]

Look up some Cascadian Dark Ales.

 

[pkeeler]

There are IBUs and then there is hop flavor. Most stouts actually have quite a few IBUs, but they don't have pronounced hop flavor. The bitterness (IBUs) balances the malt and roasted sweetness. The BJCP guideline for Imperial Stout is 50-90+ IBUs!

 

[wonderbread23]

There are IBUs and then there is hop flavor. Most stouts actually have quite a few IBUs, but they don't have pronounced hop flavor. The bitterness (IBUs) balances the malt and roasted sweetness. The BJCP guideline for Imperial Stout is 50-90+ IBUs!

Exactly. Some of my favorite Imperial Stouts have around 80-100 ibus. With big stouts that I plan on aging, I can rarely add enough IBUs. The bitterness isn't neccessarily perceived as intense as it would be if they were in a dry IPA because the residual sugar mellows out a lot of the harsh bitterness.

 

[pernox]

Try Smuttynose RIS if you can get it - it's like an IPA mated with a RIS and their offspring did a lot of steroids, fell in love with a hooker, then bottled all of its anger when she left him.