Beer Release (Short's Brew): Empress Catherine

This particular Imperial stout has never been bottled or kegged for statewide distribution.

Empress Catherine dates back to Joe's days at Jackson Brewing Company, later named Ziggs Kettle and Brew. It was here that he had the creative freedom to start developing early versions of recipes that would eventually become some of Short's Brewing Company's best know beers (Huma Lupa Licious and Autumn Ale). Out of these early Joe Short beer recipes was an Imperial Stout unlike any other he had created before. Looking back, Joe has even said that this stout was the best beer he had ever created during his early brewing career!

After digging deep into the archives and having a half-dozen or so recipes handed to him that may or may not have been the original recipe, our head brewer Tony pieced together a recipe that seemed indicative of a beer that could have captured Joe's affections during those early brewing years.

This is Joe's instructions on how to order a stout at the pub-

"Order two beers! One that can be consumed immediately at the cold temperature it was dispensed at, and the other being your stout of preference. That way, when you are finished with your first beer, your stout will be ready for consumption at it's ideal serving temperature, allowing you to truly enjoy the depth of flavors within." - Joe Short

Cheers and long live Michigan beer!

Empress Catherine: A dark opaque stout with sweet aromas of molasses and black currants. Rich flavors of dark chocolate and heavy roast provide a perfect malty balance to the pronounced bitterness in the finish, commonly found in big Imperial Stouts.

 

Next week, perhaps.

Standard for specialty releases. 600 Glorious cases.

 

8%

 

Not sure, myself.

 

Yeah, some heavy hitters on the way. I'm particularly stoked for this Trifecta of Destiny -- "Freedom of '78 > Superfluid > Hopstache.