Stouts that are way too bitter?

I find the bitterness offsets the bigger body and sweetness. I'm not a fan of the dessert stouts that drink like syrup.

 

Way too bitter stout = black IPA/Cascadian Dark perhaps?

 

Martyn Cornell's Amber, Gold & Black, using stats found by @patto1ro , says the mid-19th century Barclay Perkins' Imperial Brown Stout recipes called for between 9 and 11 pounds of hops/barrel.

 

Where would you find Old Rasputin on the bitter stout spectrum? This is one of the most common Russian Imperial Stouts you can find in stores, so it’s a good baseline.

 

I love bitter stouts. I think the trend these days is actually much further in the other direction: “pastry stouts” or dessert stouts with lactose and literal candy bars added.

 

I stumbled upon Storm King in a store last week, and to say that I was overjoyed would be an understatement; and it tasted sooo good! First Imperial stout I've bought in a long time.

 

Storm King comes to mind as a beer you are describing , victory just rereleased it in October (finally!). To me it is a very hoppy beer but I think most of the flavor comes off as malt driven, american stout (cause we love our hops I guess).

I personally love storm king and the exact type of beer you are saying you dislike. What stout are you talking about in particular that you really dislike? Is it one that is only available locally?

 

haha literally posted mine and saw your comment pop up at the same time

 

Yeah, I've been seeing it, too (likely a different Victory distributor down here in central Jersey) and I'm surprised it's showing up at all since it does seem that most retailers think that Victory = Golden and all the other Monkey variations.

Hard to find bottles and, especially, cans of Prima Pils or HopDevil, fresh ones even rarer, and US-brewed stouts and porters of the "non-additional flavorings" sort seem to be consider passé by much of the geekery.

 

Me too. I was thrilled to see it local stores. Probably my favorite imperial stout.

 

The first beer I thought of when I saw the thread title was Pike XXXXX Stout, which I believe you sent me. I remember thinking it was too bitter at first, but it very much growing on me.

 

Yes!

Sadly another one that seems to have disappeared from NJ. Not that it was all that popular- Total Wine was the only store that seemed to carry it.

 

Victory seems to still have a big following based on where I buy beer. Unless they changed their shelf life windows both hop devil and prima are always only a month or two (tops) old at my local store, lucky for me.

 

Beelzebub from Alchemist. Wasn't enjoyable at all and I don't mind a bitter stout but that one was quite unbalanced. Many start bitter but age like a gem like Stone IRS and Yeti. Victory Storm King is more hoppy than bitter to me, like a cross between a black ipa and an imperial stout. Bells expedition stout and Old Rasputin are prime example of bitter but balanced right out of the gate to me.

 

OP, as a homebrewer you are probably already aware of this, but bittering hops (as opposed to aroma and flavoring hops) have to be used in all beers to balance the sweetness from the malt. If a brewer leaves the beer unbalanced, hopefully it's a taste that he was aiming for but not all drinkers are fans of it. Perfectly balanced stouts are what I like.

I think your post is aimed at hop bitterness, but there is another kind of bitterness that comes from the roastiness of the malt/grains, and some readers of this thread may be posting here with that bitterness in mind. It's a different bitterness, but it's still a bitter taste. I like a mild roastiness in a stout (never in a porter) but once it becomes a bitter roastiness.... no thank you!

 

As further discussed by @PapaGoose03 above, is it the hop bitterness (e.g., IBU amount) that is bothersome to you?

A few folks have discussed Victory Storm King:

“Storm King

IMPERIAL STOUT

WEATHER THE STORM

abv: 9.1%

ibu: 65

malt: Pilsner, Vienna, Carafa

hops: Cascade, Chinook, Centennial

notes: A thundering hop presence strikes your tastebuds and collides with robust notes of espresso and dark chocolate in this legendary full-bodied stout.”

https://victorybeer.com/beers/storm-king/

Since the re-release of this beer last fall (it was on ‘hiatus’ for something like 4 years) I have purchased a six-pack and afterwards a case. Needless to say but this beer is not "too bitter" for me.

Cheers to Victory re-brewing Storm King!!!!!

 

10 or 11 years ago when I first tried storm king stout my taste buds weren't ready for it. I had just tried sam adams cream stout and loved it and was massively disappointed when I tried SKS.

Fast forward to today and I the most bitter west coast IPAs, black IPAs and bitter stouts. I can't wait to revsisit SKS and am on the lookout for a single.

To add something more to the discussion last spring I had De Molen Hel & Verdoemenis and was enamored by it. It was massively more bitter than most stouts I had in YEARS and I couldn't get enough of it. Next time I come across it I'll be buying MUCH more than one.

 

I miss bitter stouts. At least in my area they've become rare. Basically just Yeti, Obsidian, and Kalamazoo Stout. Everything has skewed toward sweetness (excessively so, even) over the last 5-6 years. There's a time and place for those, but I prefer the bitter/hoppy examples that border on Black IPA/Cascadian Dark, but still firmly stand in stout territory.