Matryoshka
Franklin's Restaurant, Brewery & General Store

Poured from the bottle into a snifter glass. Vintage 2016.

This is truly amazing to witness. Perfection as far as I am concerned on a big imperial stout. Creamy and thick rich unbelievably dark mocha, nearly red burnt colored head out of the bottle. Dark and tall with two fingers, and a dark chocolate top. This is by far one of the darkest heads I have seen on any beer. The body color is practically a rusted midnight, almost sort of copper red amongst all the dark night opaque blackness. Settles calmly with even touches of ring lace. Just gorgeous. I am shocked and in awe.

Well it's all downhill from here right? Not quite. Great nose. Creamy malts with light roast, with some vanilla touches. Comes up like whipped up chocolate on the nose quite a bit. A small touch of coffee rounds out as well, but there is this underlying creamy tone all ove this beer.

Woah this beer is delivering in spades. An unbelievably velvety and creamy rich feeling palate. Silky touches of vanilla and warm coffee flavor, with an excellent amount of dark powdered cocoa. Mid palate just explodes. Tangy dark malts and whipped up chocolate cake, with touches of acidic coffee bean. Hits with a little soft pine on the aftertaste to even put a hop angle on. Rich. Decadent. Incredible soft roasted body and quality.

Wow, what a shocker to find a beer like this in such a seemingly close familiar place.

I am sampling a cellar temp 750 ml bottle poured into a snifter. 2016 vintage. The beer is a gift from my friend Erik. Thank you!
The beer pours very deep oil black beer with a very thick creamy brown head of 3 cm. The foam fades slowly to robust edge layer and a thin surface foam.
The aroma is heavy roasted malt and dark chocolate with a bit of raisin and some boozy black pepper. Definitely doesnt hide that it is a big beer.
The first sip reveals a pretty thick body with very fine carbonation and a smooth creamy texture.
The flavor is heavy malt with roasted notes dominating and some dark chocolate but also a lot of raisin and figs again at this point. There isnt any hop character in the flavor profile, there is a deep dark fruit on the finish. The booze doesnt give me any warming characteristic on the swallow. I definitely feel the effects towards the end of the bottle. This is a tasty and robust brew that sneaks up on me a little at the end of the sampling. A nice beer from a spot Ill try to check out at somepoint when in the area.
Big boozy malt bomb for a sipping evening.