It’s a Nice Day For A Stout Wedding

For many, Evil Twin Brewing requires no introduction as a near-decade old purveyor of some of the boldest and absurd beers in the world today, with many releases seemingly more impossible than the last; lurching from massive juicy IPAs and DIPAs, to massive adjunct-laden pastry stouts, whilst regularly criss-crossing the territory of sours and more traditional styles. They really can do it all, to which we are perhaps indebted to the very nature of how Evil Twin used to operate as a brewery: by not having one. Yes, you did read that correctly; your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you; until building their very own physical brewery in New York in January 2019, Evil Twin did not actually call one location home and operated as a ‘gypsy brewer’, collaborating with other brewers/breweries to produce their limited-edition and one-off beers, as well as a series of seasonal and year-round beers available internationally.

Now, with that preamble out of the way, let’s dig in to the beer itself: Imperial Wedding Cake Break, another addition to the Imperial Break series, which has seen previous iterations include Biscotti (you know, the highly addictive biscuits served with coffee), Doughnuts, Churros and a myriad of barrel-aged variants. When compared to the adjuncts used in other versions, wedding cake seems conflictingly normal, yet left-field; with cake itself being something so ordinary and pedestrian but when you up the ante to a wedding cake, a much more ceremonious and reverent institution, it all begins to make sense.

“Do you really pick out much wedding cake coming through in the beer?” I hear you ask, and in a word, no. No you do not. But do elements of it emerge separately over time? Absolutely! Being as loaded as it is with vanilla and almonds, you can expect your palate to conjure notes of cake sponge and icing and marzipan as you soldier on through this really quite remarkable 11.5%ABV stout. 11.5% of roasty, sweet, sludgy, gloopy, glorious Imperial Stout.

Is Imperial Wedding Cake Break exactly what I expected when I set out to review it? Not entirely, but to be fair I wasn’t really exactly sure I knew what I was letting myself in for from the get-go.

Would I say that Imperial Wedding Cake Break ACTUALLY a good beer once I set aside my unwavering love of Evil Twin? 100%

Will I drink Imperial Wedding Cake Break again any time soon? Absolutely, and I’d recommend you do too in case I get to it before you.