Barclay Perkins Advertises Imperial Double Brown Stout

In 1844, London’s Barclay Perkins brewery advertised an “Imperial Double Brown Stout” in The Times. The name combined “imperial,” indicating exceptional strength or prestige, with the established terminology of brown stout. Within the brewery, later records commonly abbreviated Imperial Brown Stout as IBS. The advertisement is an important documented stage in the development of imperial stout as a distinct identity. It did not yet call the beer “Russian Imperial Stout,” but Barclay Perkins’ strong stout was closely associated with exports to Russia and the Baltic region. The later style name therefore emerged gradually from London porter and stout terminology rather than from a single formal invention.