Matryoshka (Cocoa Nibs And Raspberries)
Fort George Brewery + Public House

 

 

 

I indicated in the data base that this was brewed only once, and I certainly hope it's true. While I give Ft. George an A for trying something new (a variation on the original Matryoshka), this was not a particularly good effort.

Sampled at the Loyal Legion the other day during their Ft. George tap takeover event.

The beer pours the expected blackish brown color with pretty good head retention and attractive tannish brown lacing all around. The beer certainly looks nice enough. On the nose, there's a huge aroma of raspberry, that pretty much drowns everything else out. There's a hint of underlying vanilla and coffee, but that's really about it. The aroma of raspberries in this beer is that overpowering. On the palate, the flavor of raspberries is even more intense, and really dominates the flavor profile. I tried this side by side with the regular Matryoshka, and it's literally impossible to tell that it's the base beer for the Raspberry and Cocoa nibs version. At least on the palate I do detect the cocoa nibs somewhat (I get no sense of the cocoa nibs on the nose), and yes there's some vanilla, dark chocolate and coffee, but no bourbon, and once again the raspberry flavor dominates everything. Mouthfeel is fairly full, but even here, the raspberry flavor seemed to thin the beer out on the palate. Alcohol is well integrated into the flavor profile, so at least there's that, but this beer is not what I would call particularly drinkable.

The beer isn't awful by any means, but considering how outstanding the regular Matryoshka is, making this beer out of it seems like a complete abomination. The regular Matryoshka is a beer I order, and will continue to order, whenever I see it on tap (which isn't nearly often enough). This is not.