Slightly related … 3 Floyds removed “Russian” from Dark Lord bottles. The same year that started, they used a color scheme similar to the Ukrainian flag for wax.
Need that 2018 Drago ASAP The desertification of EVERYTHING in the US is disgusting. That's why this happens . Plain and simple. Fat , lazy, sugar pumped americans gotta have their desert 24/7. People absolutely lose their shit over candy/desert imperial stouts. it boggles my mind. the #1 ranked imperial stout in the world is holding that title becuase it tastes like pancakes. what the fuck? Nothing wrong with having one maybe once a month or so . i should stop cuz my blood pressure is rising
that beer has no business being named a Russian imperial stout. it's like drinking pure unrefined brown sugar
Of course. I should have prefaced my post by saying the beer is shit and nobody likes it. People go to a festival to acquire liquid shit so they can complain about having liquid feces.
Not my point at all Just pointing out that Dark Lord doesn't fit the bill at all for an RIS . Didn't say it's a shit beer nor was that implied. Drink what you want, but that baby ain't an RIS at all
If you turn back the clock about 10-15 years, one can argue that it was. the standard bearer. Now the cool thing to do is to shit on it. It just gets tiresome.
Add them to the list of other disappearing beer styles. And the RIS you do see are either aged in spent booze barrels or have an unholy amount of weird additives in them. Sorry, I don't want blueberry pancakes and maple syrup in my stout, if that's your jam, or any other breakfast combo for that matter. A true Russian Imperial Stout is indeed a rare find these days.
Well, if you put it that way, one could argue that it’s a stretch to consider practically any beer in the history of American craft beer as a “true” Russian imperial stout.
More of this please! Also Ten Fiddy and Raspy are always welcome in my home. Love these takes of yours! Agreed.
even 15 years ago. No one is shitting on dark lord, the american pastry stout , there is just nothing about it that says " I'm a RIS" .
I agree there seems to be a reduction in Russian Imperial Stouts but also Imperial Stouts in general. I have a hard time believing it’s the war.
The war is one issue, and the most obvious, I thought. Also the trend to sweeter strong stouts with "stuff" in them is undeniable. Thirdly, I suppose Russian Stout does not mean much to drinkers and brewers nowadays. Most have never drunk the original Courage Russian Stout.
There is no question that the conflict has caused some brewers to drop Russian-themed beers/labels and change style marketings. This shouldn't be difficult to believe. To use @JohnnyHopps example - Dark Lord 2021 label: Dark Lord 2022 label: It's not easy to read the Three Floyds font in 2021, but changes like these were not a coincidence with world events. The pics above are not evidence that "Russian stouts" as a style are now harder to buy than "American stouts" as a style. It's just evidence of marketing shifts. There's no real difference with these two style names in US craft beer. If Stone lost the legal battle to add "Russian" to their stout, they would have left it off the label (more on that in my next post). US brewers added "Russian" themes to their imperial stouts for the exoticism, marketing opportunity, and historical association (piggy-backing off of English brewers). Craft brewers today are more interested in branding associations with things from drinker's childhoods or musical acts (which shows that it's not just about the war in every case). Brewing companies with the word "Rasputin" in their year-round stout name are a bit more stuck in the Russian association than companies using a Simon Bisley comic book painting of an axe-wielding fantasy barbarian on an annual release. Nobody is going to miss the words on Dark Lord. Are US brewers these days more likely to add vanilla to a new stout recipe, and favor low attenuation in stouts compared to 2015 - yeah, there is no question in that regard as well. But that is a separate trend from the removal of Russian associations. Once you put all of these various trends together, there's not going to be too much company interest in Russian-themed stouts.
And to add to my above post, Stone released this in 2022 instead: Even the marketing behind it claims: "Stone Imperial Stout was first brewed 22 years ago."
those cowards at stone also got rid of their IRS day where they would have 5+ different IRS variants on tap after the whole "war thing" started
If you look at the top rated Russian Imperial Stouts, Marshmallow Handjee is number one with a 4.73 rating. The first non-barrel-aged non-adjunct stout on the list is Surly Darkness with a 4.48 rating. I stopped looking for a non-barrel-aged non-adjunct stout on the American Imperial Stout list. Got into the 30's and just gave up. For what it's worth, Kentucky Brunch Brand Stout is number one on this site at 4.83 as an American Imperial Stout. Based on the above, it's not really much of a mystery why we're not seeing more regular Imperial Stouts. Whether they're Russian, American or otherwise.
I think it's less about Russophobia and more about people wanting sweet and boozy dessert beers. The market has been trending that way for years and years.
