Verzet Mighty Matroesjka 33 Cl.

Mighty Matroesjka is Brouwerij ‘t Verzet’s Russian Imperial Stout, a beer that arrives with a sweet, reassuring air before revealing its secret-agent character. In the glass it is black as a Siberian night, with amber and mahogany highlights at the edges and a thin, lingering coffee-colored head. The first impression is seductive: dried fruit and honey, a souvenir of its stay in Jamaican rum barrels, bringing notes of molasses, dark sugar and a tropical, spiced roundness. Then comes the infiltration: aging in sherry barrels adds a warm oxidative complexity of walnut, raisin and candied fruit, and a heat that warms like a Siberian stove, deep and enveloping. The body is dense, oily and velvety, the roasted base of the Imperial Stout evokes bitter cocoa and dark chocolate, and the finish is very long, liqueur-like and persistent. At 15% ABV, Brouwerij ‘t Verzet’s Mighty Matroesjka is a Russian Imperial Stout of extraordinary intensity, best served at cellar temperature in a tulip glass or a small snifter and savored slowly, in small sips, on the coldest nights of winter.