American-Style Imperial Porter

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Location:North American
Category:Ale
BJCP Comparable Category:20A - American Porter

Beer Style Description

This is the description of how the American-Style Imperial Porter style of beer should taste, feel and look. However, there may be perfectly fine beers in this style that fall outside of these ranges and descriptions. This information is just to show the most commonly accepted ranges for the American-Style Imperial Porter beer style.

  • Color: Black
  • Body: Full
  • Malt Flavors & Aromas: No roast barley or strong burnt/black malt character should be present. Medium malt, caramel and cocoa sweetness should be present.
  • Hop Flavors & Aromas: Low to medium-high
  • IBUs/Bitterness: Medium-low to medium
  • Fermentation Characteristics: Fruity esters are present but not overpowering and should complement hop character and malt-derived sweetness. Diacetyl should not be present absent.
  • Common Ingredients: May contain several malts, prominently dark malts, which often include black malt (chocolate malt is also often used). American hops typically used for bittering, but US or UK finishing hops can be used; a clashing citrus quality is generally undesirable. Ale yeast can either be clean US versions or characterful English varieties.
  • Commercial Examples: Anchor Porter, Boulevard Bully! Porter, Deschutes Black Butte Porter, Founders Porter, Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, Smuttynose Robust Porter, Sierra Nevada Porter

Brewing Properties of American-Style Imperial Porter

These are the functional brewing properties of American-Style Imperial Porter beers, as descided by the Brewers Association. These guidelines reflect, as accurately as possible, the historical significance, authenticity or a common profile in the current commercial beer market.

ABV
The alcohol by volume is shows the amount of alcohol this style of beer should have.
7.0 - 12.0%
Bitterness
The International Bittering Units (IBU) scale is used to approximately quantify the actual (not perceived) bitterness of beer.
35 - 50 IBUs
SRM
SRM is a scale for measuring the color intensity of a beer. Low SRM grains impart a pale straw color while higher values mean it will add a darker color to the wort. Learn more »
40 SRM
(79 EBC)
Original Gravity
Original Gravity (OG) is a measure of the sugar content in the wort before alcoholic fermentation has started to produce the beer.
1.080 - 1.100
Final Gravity
The Final Gravity (FG) is how much sugar is left over in the beer when fermentation is complete.
1.020 - 1.030

If you see an error in our data, please let us know!

Based on Brewers Association 2020 Beer Style Guidelines with changes. Used with permission of Brewer's Association.