With the holidays in full swing, it’s officially warming, potent beer season. We can’t get enough bold, roasty stouts this time of year. But we also enjoy sweeter, richer porters — especially imperial porters. For those unaware, imperial (named for the imperial court of Catherine the Great in 1700s Russia) porters are higher in alcohol than their non-imperial counterparts. They’re also known for sweet, caramel, chocolate, coffee, and roasted malt flavors.
We love imperial porters in late November and December drinking. Keep scrolling to see eight of our favorites — some classic and no frills and others loaded with bold, sweet, indulgent flavor.
8) Saint Arnold French Press
ABV: 9.4%
Average Price: $10.99 for a six-pack
The Beer:
If you’re a coffee drinker, you can probably figure out where Saint Arnold French Press got its name. This imperial porter was brewed with Java Pura Coffee Roasters Espresso blend coffee. It’s known for its roasted malts, chocolate, and coffee.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is all coffee and some chocolate and really not much else. The palate continues this trend with some caramel malts, and wintry spices making an appearance but it’s pretty much all coffee and chocolate. If that’s your thing you’ll like it. Otherwise, move along.
Bottom Line:
This is a beer for coffee fans and nobody else. If you prefer your imperial porters to taste like a freshly brewed cup of coffee in beer form, you’re in luck.
7) NoDa Captain Peanut Butter’s Chocolate Revenge
ABV: 9.2%
Average Price: $16.99 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
If you’re a porter fan, you’ve probably noticed that they are flavored with coffee, chocolate, peanut butter, and other flavors. Nobody will be confused about what flavors they’ll find in NoDa’s popular imperial porter. It’s called Captain Peanut Butter’s Chocolate Revenge and it’s brewed with cocoa nibs and toasted peanut butter.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is all roasted peanuts, coffee, dark chocolate, and caramel malts. It seems promising, but the palate has other plans. It’s all peanut butter, dark chocolate, and coffee. There’s almost too much going on and it’s pretttttty sweet.
Bottom Line:
Another example of an imperial porter having over-the-top, dominant flavors. The peanut butter is the biggest flavor, but it’s all a little too sweet.
6) Flying Dog Gonzo
ABV: 10%
Average Price: $14.99 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Named for the late Hunter S. Thompson, this bold, robust imperial porter is brewed with Caramel, Black, and Chocolate malts, as well as American ale and English ale yeast as Northern Brewer and Cascade, hops. It’s known for its flavors of coffee, chocolate, vanilla, and bitter hops.
Tasting Notes:
Vanilla, chocolate, coffee, and lightly floral, herbal hops are prevalent on the nose. The palate is licorice, bitter chocolate, roasted malts, and slightly piney, bitter hops. It’s a decent imperial porter, but nothing to write home about.
Bottom Line:
Gonzo is a drinkable, flavorful imperial porter. It has everything porter fans enjoy. It just doesn’t knock your socks off in terms of flavor and the finish is a little bitter than expected.
5) Ballast Point Victory at Sea
ABV: 10%
Average Price: $13.99 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This popular imperial porter comes from the folks at San Diego’s Ballast Point. While most known for its iconic Sculpin IPA, the brewery has many Victory at Sea fans as well. This bittersweet, memorable beer gets its flavor from an infusion of vanilla and locally-sourced Caffe Calabria coffee beans.
Tasting Notes:
It all starts with a nose of toasted vanilla beans, coffee beans, bitter chocolate, and roasted malts. The welcoming aroma continues on the palate with notes of licorice, dried fruits, vanilla beans, milk chocolate, and a ton of freshly brewed coffee. It’s complex and highly memorable.
That said, the vanilla is slightly overwhelming.
Bottom Line:
Victory at Sea is a highly complex imperial porter with a ton of mingling flavors. The only downfall is that the vanilla addition is a little overpowering and takes over the whole show.
4) Local Brewing Winter Sweater
ABV: 8.1%
Average Price: $18.99 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
This is a truly unique imperial porter. Not only is it a bold, robust, semisweet porter, but it was brewed with 80 pounds of graham crackers as well as vanilla beans sourced from Madagascar. The result is a sweet, rich porter that ends up just as warming as a winter sweater.
Tasting Notes:
Caramel, roasted malts, graham crackers, chocolate, and vanilla, and big on the nose. Drinking it reveals even more indulgent sweetness from graham crackers, dark chocolate, toasted vanilla beans, and coffee. It’s sweet, slightly bitter, and highly warming on a cold winter night.
Bottom Line:
This is a beer for the s’mores fans. It’s graham cracker, vanilla, and chocolate filled. The only thing it’s missing is marshmallows and it would be perfect.
3) High Water Aphotic
ABV: 9.3%
Average Price: $7.99 for a 22-ounce bottle
The Beer:
The word “aphotic” means “without light” in Greek. That’s a very apt name for this sweet, rich, pitch-black imperial porter. It’s known for its caramel, roasted malts, coffee, chocolate, and dried fruit flavors. It’s a highly sought-after beer from the Lodi, California-based brewery.
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of roasted malts, bitter chocolate, coffee beans, and lightly floral, herbal hops meet your nose before your first sip. The palate is all roasted malts, cocoa powder, coffee beans, and slightly sweet, toasted vanilla beans. It’s well-balanced and highly drinkable even with its high alcohol content.
Bottom Line:
This is a beer for true imperial porter fans. It doesn’t have any flavors it doesn’t need. It’s roasted malt forward and all of the other flavors are there to add to it. It’s a very complex, drinkable beer.
2) Beachwood Mocha Machine
ABV: 9.2%
Average Price: $12.99 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
Beachwood Mocha Machine is brewed with German and British malts before being infused with roasted coffee beans from Portola Coffee Lab in nearby Costa Mesa, California. But that’s not all. It’s matured on Ecuadorian cocoa nibs.
Tasting Notes:
It starts with a nose of freshly brewed coffee, roasted malts, cocoa powder, and light floral hops start this beer off on a pleasant note. Sipping it brings forth notes of raisins, roasted coffee beans, toasted malts, vanilla beans, toffee, and rich dark chocolate. It’s filled with coffee flavor, but it melds well with the rest of the bold flavors.
Bottom Line:
While coffee is obviously the main event when it comes to this beer’s flavor profile, it doesn’t overpower all of the other flavors. In fact, it only heightens to overall flavor experience.
1) Lupulin Imperial CPB
ABV: 10%
Average Price: $19.99 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
You might assume a brewery with such a hop-centric name wouldn’t have such proficiency in crafting superior imperial porters as well. But you’d be wrong. This imperial version of its popular porter begins as an imperial oatmeal porter that’s full of peanut butter and chocolate flavors.
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of dark chocolate, roasted malts, vanilla beans, and roasted peanut butter give this beer a bold nose. Drinking it only adds to this with hints of peanut butter cups, milk chocolate, fresh-brewed coffee, and roasted malts. The finish is a nice mix of sweetness and bitterness.
Bottom Line:
This bold, rich beer is what a peanut butter cup would taste like in beer form. Luckily the flavors are balanced and complex with a nice combination of sweetness and bitterness so it’s not overly cloying.
