Serve in a tulip at 8-12 °C
What it tastes like
Think of an American amber ale and turn every dial up. The colour is a deep red that glows in a window, the malt tastes of toffee and lightly toasted bread, and the hops come in hard with citrus peel, pine and sometimes tropical fruit. The bitterness is high, and it needs to be, because there is a lot of sugar to balance.
The style grew up in American craft brewing in the 2000s, when brewers making double IPAs wanted a version with more malt on the palate. Crystal malts give the colour and sweetness. A little roasted barley or dark crystal pushes the red without adding coffee notes. The yeast stays clean so the malt and hops do the talking.
What separates it from a barley wine is focus. An imperial red is usually a little lighter in strength and meant to be drunk fresh, with the hops at their brightest. Leave it a year and the hops fade, which helps a barley wine but mostly hurts this.
Style profile
- Look
- Deep red to reddish copper, clear, with a tight off-white to tan head that holds well.
- Aroma and flavour
- Caramel, toffee and toasted bread from the malt, then citrus, pine and resin from American hops. Bitterness is high but rounded by the malt.
- Mouthfeel
- Medium full and smooth, moderate carbonation, a warming finish that stays bitter rather than sticky.
- Ingredients
- Pale malt with a generous share of crystal malts, a touch of roasted barley for colour. American hops in the kettle and dry hop. A clean American ale yeast.
In India
Hop aroma is the first thing heat destroys, so an imperial red needs to be drunk fresh and kept cold all the way from brewery to glass. That makes it a brewpub beer here rather than something you hunt for in a shop. It suits a monsoon evening with heavy food better than a summer afternoon, and at 8 to 10 per cent a single glass goes a long way. Ask for the packaging date, and skip it if it is months old.
At the Indian table
Food pairings contributed by Anuradha Rao
- Chicken ChettinadBlack pepper and kalpasi meet citrus hops, and the caramel malt rounds off the spice.
- Pork vindalooVinegar and chilli need a beer with this much malt and bitterness to stand alongside them.
- Rajma chawalSlow cooked beans and tomato gravy match the toasty, sweet malt without fighting the hops.
- ChikkiJaggery and roasted peanut pick up the toffee notes and soften the bitter finish.
Brewed in India
We could not verify an Indian commercial version yet. Strong ales are rare here because excise is charged on alcohol and long ageing ties up tanks, so ask your brewpub about a winter one-off.