There’s no question that imperial (or double) styles have a devoted audience. Whether or not you personally enjoy them, you’ll probably end up making one sooner or later, and there are some good rules-of-thumb to follow when you do! I wish I could tell you it’s as simple as doubling all of the ingredients, but I can’t. Don’t get me wrong: that’s an option, but it’s probably going to yield a pretty wild beer. This week, we’re going to take a relatively straightforward style—Helles—and “upscale” it into a double/imperial version, so that you can get a sense of the kinds of considerations in play and an approach to dealing with them.
Style
Helles is a light lager that is described in the style guidelines as “a Pils malt showcase.” To make an imperial version, we’re not only going to want more alcohol, we’re going to want to turn up the volume on that key style characteristic. This will both ensure that it comes through clearly, at a minimum, but hopefully also gives the beer an “intense” style effect. We’ll also still want that floral, noble hops flavor and aroma, and some balancing bitterness appropriate to our new malt and alcohol levels. But more Pils malt is key here, just as increased hopping is key to Imperial IPA.
Ingredients
First, we need to set our target. Ordinarily, you find Munich Helles in about the 5 percent ABV range. While we could literally double that, a 10 percent pale lager might be a bit much; when “doubling,” I like to increase to 7.5 percent or add 2.5 percent to the normal ABV, whichever is higher. Doing so ensures that it’s a meaningful increase to justify the new name and also ensures that we add a dose of soft, warm alcohols to the flavor and feel because this should be a key flavor of any imperial beer! For Helles (typical ABV of 5 percent), we’re shooting for 7.5 percent ABV using either measure (convenient, isn’t it?).