What is "Imperial"?

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BigBrewHawk

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I recently had my first taste of Dogfish Imperial 90 min. IPA and God, what a fantastic beer! I've had a few others with "imperial" in the title, as well. So... What is the difference between an IPA and an "imperial" IPA or any style and it's imperial counterpart?
 
Imperial is most often used to denote a variation on a style that is more extreme than the standard of the style. Basically more of everything.

An "imperial" stout, for example, will contain even more roasted flavor in the malt than is usual, more hops, and a higher alcohol content.

An "imperial" or double India pale ale, or IPA, will be even more heavily hopped than most IPAs and again will have a higher alcohol content.

The usage of the word imperial comes from the style Russian Imperial stout, a style of strong stout originally brewed in England for the Russian Imperial Court of the late 1700s.
 
Thank you for clearing that up for me. Nah, not gross! Don't fear the flavor... unless it's a sour ale! Just had my first taste of New Belgium's La Folie last night, and holy **** that thing destroyed my mouth and taste buds!
 
Imperial means you pay a royal tax to the King of America. it's bull**** if you ask me, that damn King and all his gallivanting about.
 
BigBrewHawk said:
Thank you for clearing that up for me. Nah, not gross! Don't fear the flavor... unless it's a sour ale! Just had my first taste of New Belgium's La Folie last night, and holy **** that thing destroyed my mouth and taste buds!

You start getting into trouble with IIIPA and up, the crazy people who want to make an imperial imperial ipa, I love hops but come on.

And also, I've been craving la folie for a couple weeks now but haven't been able to buy any for a while, it's abrasive at first but if you are like me you will start craving that funk, look for Russian River consectration, that isn't as funky and the perfect balance.
 
JollyIsTheRoger said:
You start getting into trouble with IIIPA and up, the crazy people who want to make an imperial imperial ipa, I love hops but come on.

And also, I've been craving la folie for a couple weeks now but haven't been able to buy any for a while, it's abrasive at first but if you are like me you will start craving that funk, look for Russian River consectration, that isn't as funky and the perfect balance.

IDK, I guess I'm one of the "crazies" because I would drink hop soup, that's how much I love hops!! I'll even chew on them while I'm brewing. For me there is no such thing as too many hops.

But I can see where it could go overboard for some...
 
IDK, I guess I'm one of the "crazies" because I would drink hop soup, that's how much I love hops!! I'll even chew on them while I'm brewing. For me there is no such thing as too many hops.

But I can see where it could go overboard for some...


I hear ya.....I change styles I drink and brew all the time. For a while there, all I craved was hops and hops and well you get the point. The suddenly I found myself craving the really malty beers again....it's all cyclical.....atleast for me it is.
 
I'm using 6oz of 3 different hops in my 1st IPA. With 3lbs Munton's plain light DME & a 1.7kg (about 3.75lbs) cooper's OS draught to get the amber orange,toasty flavor of the malt. So,I guess this is an IPA a little on the light side gravity-wise? The malt part just happened to look & taste a lot like DFH's malt in there IPA's. But mine started life at OG 1.050.
 
I imagine you'll learn to appreciate it.
Good to see a Kansan on here...I'm a former. Originally from Pratt, 1 hour west of Wichita.

I'm sure I will too. I said the same thing about IPAs many moons ago and now I can't put em down :tank:

I can think of one imperial stout I had that I loved: DFH World wide stout. But when I hear "imperial stout" I think of hoppin frog's B.O.R.I.S. and I didn't feel so passionate about it... :p
 
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