Microbrewed Adventures - Charles Papazian [8]
This was to be the year of Yakima Brewing Company, its founder Bert Grant and his aggressively hoppy ales, and the birth of a new style of beer: “American-style” Russian imperial stout. There he was, founder and legendary hop guru Bert Grant turned brewer-owner of a tiny microbrewery in Washington’s Yakima valley, where nearly all American hops are grown today. Bert was a self-induced hophead. “Hophead” was a name originally used in the 1950s Beatnik era and associated with the lifestyle of the time. But this was 1984, and Bert Grant turned its meaning an about-face 180 degrees. Never would microbrewed beer be the same.
At the festival, the lines for previously popular microbrews paled in comparison to the excitement generated by Bert Grant’s Russian Imperial Stout. Proudly dressed in his Scottish kilt and bonnet, Bert offered thousands of servings of the rich, dark, heavily hopped, robust Grant’s Russian Imperial Stout. Conversion was rampant. It seemed almost evangelical. Lupulin and darkness ruled the festival. The world of beer would never be the same. Hop and stout groupies could not fulfill themselves. Bert was smiling. That year Grant’s Russian Imperial Stout took top honors in the Consumer Preference Poll. A style was born.
A brief explanation is needed, for Russian imperial stout has had a long and royal history in continental Europe and Great Britain. Brewed for royalty in olden times and still brewed in parts of Europe and the United Kingdom, its original style was not characterized by massive hoppiness. Roasted malts and barley were added with gentle consideration for flavor balance with caramel-flavored malt. Often aged for several months to a year, European versions of Russian imperial stouts were characterized by nuttiness, high alcohol and sherrified flavors. These imperial stouts are an exquisite high point of the brewer’s art and offer an experience that is rare but worth seeking. But Bert Grant’s Russian Imperial Stout was something other than “Russian.”
Bert Grant at the Yakima Brewing and Malting Company, 1986
I would call it “American-style” imperial stout. Massive amounts of hops were added for bitterness, flavor and a wondrous floral and citruslike aroma. Combined with loads of black malt and roasted barley, this pitch-black ale was supercharged with all-malt ingredients offering an alcohol level of 8.75 percent. At the time, Bert claimed, “This is probably the strongest draft beer in North America and possibly in the world.”
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BERT GRANT’S PLANET IMPERIAL STOUT
Robust, black, roasted malt and barley character unveil themselves only to be joined by the massive citruslike hop flavors and aromas of American-grown Galena and Cascade hops and the intense, clean, refreshing bitterness of Northern Brewer hops. Rich and malty, with symphonic ale-fruity notes, this beer is satisfying for all robust stout enthusiasts. The recipe can be found in About the Recipes.
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There are lots of microbrewed beers that have since surpassed Grant’s original Russian imperial stout in alcohol, but no one has so successfully pioneered such a robust style of ale as profoundly as Bert Grant. In 1982 he founded his Yakima Brewing and Malting Company. In 1984 he took the world by storm. When Bert died in 2001, at age 74, beer maven Michael Jackson wrote, “To whom will we turn now when the world needs saving?”
Bert, you did us proud. Your legacy lives on with every imperial strength and imperially hoppy ale. There are many who continue to remember June first and second at the 1984 Great American Beer Festival.
Matters of Beer Style
IT’S FIRST and foremost all about the beer. This is why I first whet your appetite with a few classic brewery adventures and their legendary beers. But once you begin to enjoy the flavor and diversity of beer, there may be nothing more conversational among homebrewers and beer enthusiasts than the questions dealing with what defines beer style.
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