Imperial Beer Takes the Throne
A good brewer can make a beer as complex as it is easy drinking at any alcohol level, from light lagers to barleywines, but stronger beers can indeed empower big, bold flavors. Their requirement of more residual sugars means brewers can play with different ways to temper that sweetness from fruit acidity to hop bitterness. “With imperial-style beers, you’re given so much more leeway to find that balance in excess and, using that maximalist approach, lean into the intensities of higher IBUs, ABVs, SRMs, and starting/finishing gravities,” says Fred Cullin, a Brooklyn-based beertender who’s brewed at Evil Twin Brewing and Aurora Brewing Co.