Thornbridge have re-brewed the beer once known as St Petersburg on the Burton Union system at the original 7.7%. They point out that the original name, rightly, is no longer appropriate given Putin’s Russia.
I have little presence on Twitter in 2026 but I as a socialist historian I do retain my timeline archive. Below are some tweets about St Petersburg from a good while back. I seem to have mainly found it in the Jolly Butchers in Stoke Newington.
While 7.7% may seem a little under powered for an imperial stout in 2026 it certainly was not in 2010! The Courage version mentioned in the Thornbridge blog (below) was sold in nips at around 8% from memory. A bottle conditioned beer it didn’t exactly fly off the shelves at those Courage pubs that stocked it (The Queens in Crouch End in the 1970s in my personal experience)so was often Bretted well before I, and I expect others, understood what that meant and why…
As for the 2026 iteration, the can conditioned version tastes like a classic imperial stout without the adjuncts that often find their way into imperial stouts currently.
Glass of Thornbridge Bolvig-one off special cask of St Petersburg imperial stout 7.7% & fabulous
Aug 2 2010
Reviewing day off. About 70% off & 30% work. Better than sometimes. A glass of Thornbridge St Petersburg (oak aged 9%) it is then…
Mar 8 2013
Moved on to Thornbridge St Petersburg (cask)
ideal beer for the weather
Jan 15 2013
Thornbridge’s blog
https://thornbridgebrewery.co.uk/blogs/head-brewers-blog/imperial-stout
Kmflett's Blog 
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