I grew up not really liking beer much. Particularly the basic beers in Sydney. Wasn’t fond of pubs either. I even went to Belgium and had no beer. Afterall, Brugges was the mecca for good chocolate. On my last night there, I had a taste of dad’s beer and was pleasantly surprised. I’ve come a long way since then.

I tend to prefer darker, stronger beers, though I’m slowly coming around to hoppier flavours and particularly good american brown beers. Or at least tasty Australian interpretations of american brown beers. Current favourites in that respect include Perth based Nail and Sydney based Batch.

My favourite beer however is stout: a strong, black beer. The most well known example of which is probably the standard Guinness. I don’t mind Guinness but not fond of the bitter aftertaste. When travelling around Ireland far too long ago, I discovered other irish stouts that I preferred, my favourite of which was Beamish, followed by Kilkenny. Closer to home, I’ve also had a soft spot for Cooper’s Best Extra Stout and recently Batch’s “Elsie the Milk Stout“.

I’ve slowly become aware in recent times, that there’s a subset of stout called imperial stouts, or russian imperial stouts. These are even heavier stouts, with a higher alcohol content (Batch’s Russian Imperial Stout was 8.7%). I’ve been trying these out of late and unfortunately, I really like them. Unfortunate as in they’re very expensive; prices seem to start around $25 or so for a 640ml bottle.

Pouring a russian imperial stout is a little like pouring treacle. It seems to ooze slowly from the bottle to coat the innards of the glass. It takes time to drink and it’s certainly not an everyday sort of beer. But oh so yum. Full of flavour, almost a meal in and of itself.