We have all been there. It was a good night and you are a bit worried about what you might have done / said / sung / etc the night before. So you drop a message to a friend.
“I don’t remember how I left, because I was mightily delighted with the gift of Bacchus. This said, I beg everyone whom I have caused vexation to pardon me”. He goes on to add “especially those who were present at the time of my departure, may this occasion be forgotten”.
The author was Tsar Peter I (“the Great”) of Russia, writing to his kinsman Count Fyodor Apraksin, and doing so in an unexpectedly humble manner. Peter’s reputation is not as a person who particularly cared if he caused “vexation” to anyone.
So - shock revelation - liking a drink went with the territory of being Tsar. Not much of what you will see in the current TV series “The Great” is true, but that bit actually is. Catherine the Great definitely liked a drink. Alexander III’s head of security recorded that he would “become joyous and playful like a child” having supped.
And one of the things that they liked to drink was English beer. When Peter visited England in 1698, the taste in London was for a dark beer made with highly roasted malt, named “Porter” after its archetypal drinker. When Peter got home, he ordered some. There follows a story, similar to the story around IPA, about how the beer had to be made stronger and more hoppy in order to keep on the long journey. As with IPA, this is part myth - it is also the case that the Russian court just liked it strong. This was good business for some breweries - a work called “The History and Antiquities of the Parish of St Saviour, Southwark” recorded that the local Thrale’s brewery “exports annually very large quantities… the Empress of All Russia [i.e. Catherine] is indeed so partial to Porter that she has ordered repeatedly very large quantities for her own drinking and that of her court”.
The legacy of exports to Russia lives on in the form of “Imperial Stout”. “Stout” began as a simple adjective, used by an 18th century Irish brewer called Arthur Guinness to describe his porter. At one point there may have been differences between stout and porter, but the two terms are now pretty interchangeable. Those who have studied this conclude that it is more likely than not that the term "imperial" derives from the custom of the Tsarist court.
I should stress that beer was not the only drink with a place in the affections of the Russian court. They pretty much drank everything, and in great quantities. We keep seeing references to “Kvass” - a mildly alcoholic drink made from fermented rye bread - as something drunk by the peasant and the Tsar alike (Kvass is now making a comeback as a patriotic alternative to what is referred to as “cola-nisation” - see what they did there? - by Western drinks).
If you want to try an Imperial Stout, there are some good ones knocking around. They are a bit of a special occasion thing. Expect to pay upwards of £6 per bottle. They tend to weigh in at above 10% ABV. I particularly like the offerings from the Founders brewery of Grand Rapids, Michigan, who produce a heady concoction with strong coffee and chocolate flavours matured in whisky barrels for a year. It’s called “Kentucky Breakfast Stout” and, at 12.4%, is to be consumed with pleasure but care.