{"id":23397,"date":"2024-07-12T19:07:10","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T07:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=23397"},"modified":"2024-07-14T23:53:47","modified_gmt":"2024-07-14T11:53:47","slug":"beeramisu-imperial-stout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2024\/07\/12\/beeramisu-imperial-stout\/","title":{"rendered":"Beeramisu \u2014 and a brief note concerning “Imperial” stout"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"An<\/a>
Food photography is so much harder than beer photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tiramisu, but with a nice strong stout instead of the liqueur or fortified wine the recipe might call for,<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> has become one of those things that I’ll make at the slightest provocation. As a staff treat for a looming busy night, if some newly released beer seems like it might work nicely, or if I find a kilo of mascarpone on special; pretty much any excuse will do. It’s always a hit, so I’m well overdue to share what I’ve learned more widely than I can share the thing itself. You deserve a treat \u2014 but then we have to have a quick chat about some outdated terminology you’ll probably see when shopping for the right beer to go in it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Dead obvious, dead good<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Best I can tell from my Diary<\/em>, a glass of Modern Times’ ‘Black House’ (an excellent coffee stout) made me grab some tiramisu from the (equally excellent) pizza joint near where I used to work, as an act of dead-obvious beer-and-food-matching.<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> I’ve forgotten what actually flipped the switch from having it with beer to\u00a0making it with<\/em> beer, but within a few weeks I’d already trialled several batches \u2014 and had started to ponder posting about it, before realising just how much more difficult food blogging was. Making a beer look good in a weirdly-lit bar isn’t easy<\/em>, but making a messy dessert in daylight even vaguely appetizing while documenting the steps to get there is something else entirely.<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> So rather than reinvent the wheel (or myself<\/em>), it’s best if I point you to my favourite base recipe, and give a few notes on how I’ve used it.<\/p>\n

Stella Parks’ ‘Rich and Creamy Tiramisu’ on Serious Eats<\/a> is where it’s at for me; a compromise between simpler (easier to make, but less interesting to taste) versions that rely on whipped cream and fussier ones that separate the eggs and recombine them later.<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Her reasoning for her choice of booze actually lends accidental support to using beer instead: she notes that it’s annoying to source high-quality ingredients that don’t have a lot of other uses, especially when the format they’re sold in leaves a lot left over. Of course, a surplus is a handy reason for another batch another day, but (relatively speaking) it’s easy to find a nice strong dark beer at a good price and in a quantity that’ll give you just enough for a little treat as you work.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Both ingredient and accompaniment<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beer notes:<\/strong> I’ve used totally straight stouts like my beloved 8 Wired ‘iStout’ (more famous for its use in an ice cream float<\/a>), and ones with a bunch of flavour adjuncts like the Range-Finback collab ‘Juggernaut’<\/a>, brewed with cinnamon, vanilla, cacao and honey. I even tried a tiramisu themed beer from Mountain Culture<\/a>, unable to resist the ridiculous recursion of it all. They’ve all been great, but my best general advice is probably to go for something with a little barrel-aged character; the hints of wood and spirit are nice extras that seem to cut through and get noticed. I also still mix in a little coffee and cocoa, and pour the stout back and forth between a couple of pint glasses before using it, to knock the bubbles out of it (reasoning that the acidity from the CO2<\/sub> would be unwelcome).<\/p>\n

\u2019misu notes:<\/strong> Stella advocates pretty hard for making your own\u00a0savoiardi<\/em>, and I’m sure it’s rewarding but for me that’s too much faff and would mean I made the whole thing less often. Store bought ones are fine, they’re just annoying to find (not quite a biscuit, not quite an ingredient) and asking where the “lady fingers” are will get you weird looks sometimes. The step where you heat the eggs is the trickiest; it took me several tries to get a system that worked and didn’t feel like I was going to scald myself with the steam but it’s extremely gear-dependent so I can’t offer much useful advice other than the trick of stirring with your thermometer itself because the timing between raw egg and proto-omelette feels very fine indeed. Apparently it helps the eggs whip up, but you can lowball the temperature a little<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and if you\u00a0do<\/em> get a faint whiff of scrambled egg (or even a few streaks of cooked bits in the mix), fear not; it will<\/em> dissipate. As for assembly, I skip the between-layers cocoa and go\u00a0very<\/em> light on the dusting on top, keen to avoid the dry-powder-induced coughing fit. Two or three layers is fine; just one is disappointing, higher is unwieldy. I parcel a batch into whatever containers are free \u2014 it’s extremely forgiving and shapeable, and then I’ve got some for my comrades at work, some to give to a friend, plenty for myself. And definitely give it overnight in the fridge to meld together.<\/p>\n

Right. Now that the treats are taken care of, it’s time for some medicine: it is gross and outdated to use the word “Imperial” to mean “strong”. We need to stop.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Delicious, but in questionable taste<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My most-recent beeramisu was made with Hop Nation’s ‘Kalash’,<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> a barrel aged strong stout they’ve released in various forms annually since 2016. It was originally branded a ‘Russian Imperial Stout’, but that first word was dropped (and the character on the label was disarmed) after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span> At the time, there was a flurry of fundraising new releases<\/a> and some recontextualising of existing beers like Hop Nation did here \u2014 I remember Garage Project even adding sunflower stickers to (and donating the proceeds of) their only-tangentially “Russian” Baltic Porter<\/a>. But if you can see why it’s inappropriate to glorify Russia right now, it ought to be obvious why “Imperial” shouldn’t ever be a reference with any honour. No one builds an Empire and keeps their hands clean; they are defined<\/em> by conquest and inequality. Here in Australia and New Zealand, it’s not hard to find beers with the awkward juxtaposition of a moderately progressive gesture like recognising a traditional placename or featuring a native ingredient \u2014 and that word<\/em> in big text on the front label, casually evoking the devastating colonial power as if it was a neutral way to signify strength.<\/span>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

My general sense is that use of “Imperial” has faded away a lot for IPA. Not completely, granted; it showed up just the other day as a clue in the New York Times<\/em> crossword,<\/span>9<\/sup><\/a><\/span> partially inspiring me to make this very note. And \u2014 as David Jesudason noted in his excellent piece<\/a> on\u00a0Good Beer Hunting<\/em> (RIP)<\/a> a few years ago \u2014 it’s often still sold in ways that clumsily glorify Empire. But maybe the more common IPA strength indicators give us a better model to follow for stout: ‘Double Stout’ (and indeed ‘Triple Stout’, if you like) already sees a fair bit of use by several breweries, and seems perfectly comprehensible to most consumers.<\/span>10<\/sup><\/a><\/span> It’s an easy fix. Certainly easier than waiting overnight before having some of the beeramisu you just made. But also worth it.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tiramisu, but with a nice strong stout instead of the liqueur or fortified wine the recipe might call for, has become one of those things that I’ll make at the slightest provocation. As a staff treat for a looming busy night, if some newly released beer seems like it might work nicely, or if I … Continue reading Beeramisu \u2014 and a brief note concerning “Imperial” stout<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blahblah","category-taxonomy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3086,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/05\/19\/townshend-st-bernards-oatmeal-stout\/","url_meta":{"origin":23397,"position":0},"title":"Townshend ‘St. Bernard’s’ Oatmeal Stout","author":"Phil","date":"May 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I bloody loves Oatmeal Stout, I do -- especially in the winter; it's basically the off-season equivalent of my recurring summertime Golden Ale obsession. There is just something absurdly comforting about a good one, and I've been blessed by more than a few fine examples, lately, ranging from sessionable ones\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Townshend 'St. Bernard's' Oatmeal Stout","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Townshend-St.-Bernards-Oatmeal-Stout-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":89,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2004\/01\/10\/coopers-special-old-stout\/","url_meta":{"origin":23397,"position":1},"title":"Coopers \u2018Special Old Stout\u2019","author":"Phil","date":"January 10, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Four entries in, and we already find our first beer that no longer exists, as at the time of the Great Uploading in October 2010. I had to check online to make sure this actually did exist, and I wasn't just drunkenly misrecording the regular Best Extra Stout. Verbatim: Cooper's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Apostropher's nightmare, Coopers Special Old Stout","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-1004-Coopers-Special-Old-Stout-300x206.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":449,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2008\/10\/03\/james-squires-ipa-grand-ridge-hatlifter-stout\/","url_meta":{"origin":23397,"position":2},"title":"James Squires IPA & Grand Ridge ‘Hatlifter’ Stout","author":"Phil","date":"October 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In this, the first double-whammy entry, mine is the IPA. It's a tasty, mild brew which is still very-definitely an IPA. It's gently hoppy (Fuggly, to be specific) and nicely malty, and is a perfect Gateway Beer to introduce people to pale ales. I do like the Squires beers. On\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"James Squires IPA & Grand Ridge 'Hatlifter' Stout","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/James-Squires-IPA-Grand-Ridge-Hatlifter-Stout-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":29240,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2026\/03\/17\/guinness-drinks-business\/","url_meta":{"origin":23397,"position":3},"title":"A pint of stout, and a can of worms","author":"Phil","date":"March 17, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Guinness isn't the highest rated stout anymore,\" declared a headline in The Drinks Business. \"New data,\" they said, reveals \"which brand comes out on top.\" I soon spotted that the source of their fresh numbers was Untappd, the beer logging and rating app \u2014 hardly a representative sample \u2014 so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mediawatch"","block_context":{"text":"Mediawatch","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/interesting-finds\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Stock-image-header-centered.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Stock-image-header-centered.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Stock-image-header-centered.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Stock-image-header-centered.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Stock-image-header-centered.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2129,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/03\/22\/bear-republic-big-bear-black-stout\/","url_meta":{"origin":23397,"position":4},"title":"Bear Republic ‘Big Bear Black Stout’","author":"Phil","date":"March 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm at a bit of a loss with the name of this one. Something in it seems superfluous, certainly. It's those three b-words in a row. I can make it work with any two of them,1 but all three together just unexpectedly trips me up like an abandoned skateboard in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bear Republic 'Big Bear Black Stout'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bear-Republic-Big-Bear-Black-Stout-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2598,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/04\/16\/little-creatures-single-batch-oatmeal-stout\/","url_meta":{"origin":23397,"position":5},"title":"Little Creatures Single Batch Oatmeal Stout","author":"Phil","date":"April 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It's hardly a secret: I loves the Little Creatures, I do. It continues to pain me greatly that only the Pale Ale is available over here in New Zealand -- as much as I freakin' adore it, they've long make other brilliant things and have relatively-recently\u00a0started doing these 'Single Batch'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Little Creatures Single Batch Oatmeal Stout","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Little-Creatures-Oatmeal-Stout-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23397"}],"version-history":[{"count":86,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23839,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23397\/revisions\/23839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}