Herevana – Emporium – Elimination Strategy

Emporium Elimination Strategy a beer name that the brewer had high hopes for. I’m pretty sure the beer is fine. Brewed during 2020 lockdown and then bottled during 2021 lockdown. That’s just unlucky.

Emporium Brewing are based in  Kaikoura, Canterbury, 🇳🇿 Elimination Strategy is a 9.2% – Imperial Stout in a 375ml Bottle which is 2.72 standard drinks in NZ it is of course a Stout – Imperial

The aroma on opening doesn’t leap out – it is a stout. There is no mistaking the Bourbon though.

The pour is dark black with a lovely pillow head that is slightly off white. The Bourbon note is the same, you can pick it quite easily.

I deliberatly left this to get a lot warmer to near room temp, just because I could, its not a strategy. I got what I fancifully am going with is ‘molasses’ but might just be burnt sugar, and liquorice, possibly the same thing..

So then there is this bit about the conversation in my head about a beer, and then there is the actual beer and what’s in front. There’s a gap. Of course. I’m not sure what I thought I might get, but I was hoping for a lactose laden full mouth feel beer that puffed up the cheeks and came with a lovely vanilla/bourbon kick. Pastry Stout.

I feel quite dim at times, and this is one of those times, this is is a straight up down stout, no fancy, no frills a quite nice stout with subtle yet obvious bourbon vanilla notes.

When you reset your exception you then begin to see different gaps. I don’t think this is as strong an imperial Stout as it might be, there isn’t a lot of depth to the roasted/coffee bitter elements that you might expect to get. No Chocolate/Coffee burnt bitterness, a beer that veers toward the sweeter side of the scale.

Not bad, but I let myself down by having an un-met expectation.

The Pdubyah-o-Meter rates this as an 8 on the arbitrary number scale. There should always be more to a stout, and this one struggles to overcome a quite insistent and strong bourbon/vanilla thing that makes is quite sweet. There should be more bitter/burnt in this, and I’ m not sure that given time that this would turn around and be a decent stout that is layered with bourbon and vanilla.

Music: Belle and Sebastian – “Push Barman to Open Old Wounds”

Herevana beers are those I drink at home, I’m not at some beer festival, like, for instance, Beervana, but am just in my kitchen, usually, dining room table, sometimes, or outside, occasionally, where I can take an average picture and write in real time about the beer that I’ve invested in, both in a monetary and emotional way.

Philip himself.

Imperial Stout aged in bourbon barrels for a year. Brewed during 2020 lockdown and then bottled during 2021 lockdown.

Brewers Notes

Stout – Imperial

The “Imperial Stout” or “Double Stout” is an intensely-flavored, big, very dark reddish-brown to black colored ale with a wide range of flavor balances and regional interpretations. Roasty-burnt malt with deep dark or dried fruit flavors, and a warming, bittersweet finish. American versions have more bitterness, roasted character, and finishing hops, while the English varieties, or “Russian Imperial Stout” (RIS), reflect a more complex specialty malt character and a more forward ester profile. Like a black barleywine with every dimension of flavor coming into play. More complex, with a broader range of possible flavors than lower-gravity stouts.