Emperors BA Scoundrel

Emperors Brewery specialises in the sort of enormous imperial stouts that make you briefly consider cancelling your plans and spending the evening quietly staring at the can instead. Based in Lancashire, the brewery has developed a huge reputation among modern craft beer fans for producing intensely rich, adjunct-heavy stouts loaded with everything from maple syrup and coconut to coffee, chocolate, peanut butter and occasionally what feels like an entire dessert menu blended together. Somehow it works remarkably well.

The brewery focuses heavily on big flavours and maximalist brewing, particularly within barrel-aged imperial stout territory. Thick body, huge sweetness, layered adjuncts and double-digit ABVs all feature heavily throughout the range, but the beers usually maintain impressive balance underneath the intensity. There’s real technical brewing skill holding everything together rather than simply throwing sugar and flavourings into a fermenter and hoping for the best.

Collaborations have also become a huge part of the brewery’s identity, with Emperors regularly teaming up with respected breweries from across the UK and Europe to create increasingly extravagant stout releases. The labels alone often look like they belong on heavy metal album covers or cult horror films, which honestly suits the beers perfectly.

While dark beer sits firmly at the centre of the brewery, Emperors occasionally branches into other modern craft styles including DIPAs and pastry sours, though everything still tends to arrive with maximum intensity turned fully up.

For stout drinkers who enjoy bold flavours, ridiculous richness and beers that could realistically replace dessert, Emperors Brewery has become one of the UK’s most reliably over-the-top producers. Thick, decadent and gloriously excessive in all the right ways.