By Myles Lambert

Imperial stouts are a style as old as the hills. Been around forever.  

However, it would be very wrong to believe that the Imperial Stouts we drink today are the same as those available in, say, the 1970s. 

Many modern breweries have developed the style to be more sweet pastry style stouts with a heavy emphasis on the sweet chocolate or other sweet flavourings making them more like an after dinner dessert than a beer!  

In my drinking journey, this sweeter, more flavoured style started with the greatest beer the Rainbow Project ever produced. The collaboration (which led to many other collaborations) between Buxton Brewery and Omnipollo, namely Yellow Belly. A beer which in flavour was laden with hazelnut flavours which made the beer drink like liquid Nutella, thick and velvet in texture, lacing every tastebud with lingering deliciousness. It was a real triumph.

This sweeter style was heavily influenced by the wave of American beers which started to reach our shores. Which included beers such as Oskar Blues Ten Fidy, Founders KBS and Alesmith Speedway Stout. All incredible beers, which arrived with the mystique of being all the way from the US of A.

But in the hype surrounding this new wake of sweet Impys, I believe we lost track of the amazing more traditional imperial stouts that this country was producing. 

One of the greatest of that style is produced right here in the North East by the brilliantly consistent Durham Brewery. Honestly, a brewery often overlooked as they don’t really court hype. But in Temptation, they have in their locker one of the standard-bearers for the more traditional English Imperial Stout. 

For tasting notes, I’ll start with flavour. The roast of the malt is far more prevalent here. This draws out a more luxurious dark chocolate note, which complements the rich, decadent coffee flavours and liquorice notes. 

I’m a bit obsessed with beer texture. For me, it’s key to the delivery of a beer and many people overlook its impact until it lets a beer down. But Temptation is thick and velvet smooth. Which carries the 10% abv. incredibly well and keeps the beer balanced. 

This, for me, is one of the best Imperial Stouts being brewed in the UK. I’m a bit obsessed with Impy Stouts as my wife keeps telling me. The once small collection of ‘set aside’ beers has become a somewhat unwieldy mass of predominantly Imperial Stouts! 

And for #Tryanuary I am starting a campaign to get everyone who has an interest, to go out and #TryTemptation. Get behind the movement people. There’s some excellent beers being produced which deserve, nay command, your attention!  Durham Brewery’s Temptation is one of those beers. It’s an icon in waiting. 

You can thank me later….

Guest blog post by Myles Lambert as part of our Tryanuary series. You can check out more from Myles at: Website: drinkinggotmethinking.wordpress.com
Twitter: @MylesLambert
Instagram: @myles_lambert

Want to buy some award-winning Temptation to try for yourself? Ask your local bottle shop, or buy online here.