Winter is coming. Not right away, but soon enough that you may want to get your home brewing game dialed in again. With the chillier weather ahead, you’ll also want to make the appropriate beer styles, like a good imperial stout.

Many homebrewing kits like to begin with a hearty stout. Makes sense, as it’s not so hard to prepare that you’ll run away from the hobby altogether. And even those in the know can get a lot out of making one from scratch, and then enjoy the malty results.

To make a good imperial stout, we sourced a recipe from the homebrew team at Northern Brewer. It’s thorough and leads to a well-rounded and bittersweet beer, charged with flavor without being as opulent on the palate as it appears. Get going now as it takes several months to complete. But before you get started, you’ll seed a few supplies. If we wish to simply use what you have lying around the kitchen, plus a few caps and hoses, fine, just scale the recipe down accordingly.

The recipe kit above comes with essential ingredients, like yeast, malt, grains, and hops. But you’ll need a bit in the way of equipment to get going:

One of the easiest ways to get the core tools is to go with a new brewer starter kit. It’ll set you up for this batch and hopefully many more to come.

Allow the beer to condition in the secondary fermenter for 2–3 months before proceeding with the next step. Timing now is somewhat flexible.

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