Imperial Porters

4BEANS/5BEANS? Those were great.

Beast Mode was a good one too.

That Guerilla Warfare coffee porter though...my favorite @Sixpoint beer ever. That was kegs only but it was incredible.

 

Porter is a dark beer,if a brewer made more than one the stronger one would be termed a stout (strong) porter.
Examination of brewery records show no differences except the amount of water used.
In the 1930s high beer taxation based on strength led many brewers to abandon their stouts but instead they relabelled their porters as stout.So countless beers have been sold under two names.Including Guinness Foreign Extra Stout aka West India Porter.
As they are technically not ales the fact that some have been bottom fermented is not relevant to the style.

 

I know you were baiting, because you've been around long enough to remember the epic stout v. porter battles. (All good... I "liked" your post) It's interesting how the Beer Advocate community has evolved to be willing to accept that they are interchangeable labels. I hope this change can be attributed to an actual shift in understanding among craft beer drinkers, but I'm skeptical that it might be a reflection of Beer Advocate forums merely shedding it's less thoughtful members to social media (Facebook, Untappd, etc.). Who knows.... whatever the reason these forums are better for it.

 

If you consider a Baltic Porter to be an Imperial Porter (and why not?), then the only one that I drink on a regular basis to be able to mention it here is Arcadia's Shipwreck Porter. It's an outstanding BBA porter.

 

No difference in the taxation. Stouts were simply stronger versions of Porter. All Stouts were Porters, but not all Porters were Stouts. London Porters and london Stouits generally had identical recipes, except for the quantity of water.

 

agreed!

I also like Tsarina Esra, Alpha Klaus, Birth of Tragedy and pretty much all the Black Butte anniversaries. locally i'd go with Deep Cocoa.

 

If Baltic porters are included in this discussion, I'll add 4BEANS, 5BEANS, and Yazoo Sue.

 

As long as we're going with regional bias, King Misanthrope.

 

how could I forget Grande Cuvée Porter Baltique - Fûts De Bourbon Et Brandy! I waited years for this to come stateside and well worth it.

 

If you're talking Baltic Porters, go with the real thing:
Black Boss
Zywiec
Okocim (if it's still even available)

 

Barrier's (NY) RipRap is a great Baltic Porter - straight-up no coffee, vanilla nonsense.
You can find bottles on beermenus.com

 

Victory at Sea is the benchmark for me. I haven't seen a mention of Stone Suede and it's been a few years since they did it but that was incredible. A regional brewery in NorCal called Fieldwork has one they call "Doomsday Machine" billed as a french toast imp porter is awesome also and currently available.