Brouwerij De Molen - Tsarina Esra

I trust the Dutch when it comes to certain things, I trust their opinions on pornography, kick boxing and I trust that they can make light of any serious and/or shocking situation as if they had encountered it several times over breakfast. I never used to trust them with beer... Until today. Brouwerij De Molen, I imagine, must mean something along the lines of "We don't like you... You drink our beer! You do it! You do it and you like it!" Which, maybe, seems a tad unlikely, but that's the impression I got from the 2 beers of theirs I have sampled. Tsarina Esra, if at all possible, was the milder one but, saying that, it was still an almost entirely untamed beast that, if left unchecked, would entirely strip you of your taste buds and the roof of your mouth. It is unapologetic for what it is, it's an Imperial Porter, it's named after a Tsarina who, as far as I can see, isn't a real person and it probes you and touches you and tests you in ways you would not expect any beer to do.

On the nose it smells of burnt caramel, ever so slightly caustic to give you an idea of what you've let yourself in for, it's the kind of smell that you would expect on a scratch and sniff warning sign outside the lair of great, ruby encrusted, dragon. It tastes as bitter-sweet as a chocolatey, espresso, porter should but this little beauty has hints of cola and crusty bread in there, if only you decide to look for them, it is so rich and deeply complex that I would need another one just to map out all the flavours. HOWEVER! At £6.50 for 33cl you're not getting a lot of liquid for your hard earned currency but you are getting a bucket load of flavour that seems a lot greater than the sum of its' parts.

Definitely to be had cold as it seems to be rather frisky on the pour but if you tame it just right you get a satisfying amount of thick white head that just makes it look like a bloody good drink. With this one beer the Dutch have won me over.

Brouwerij De Molen have an imperial stout called Rasputin which, as you can imagine, is only 0.3% lower in strength than this 11% monster but somehow manages to fight with the gloves off. It seems so much more feral and untamable, but that is a review for another day.

Tsarina Esra was pruchased from The Bottle Shop in Canterbury, where I purchase other such beers that resemble bottled rainbows and the fermented tears of Odin.

Food Suggestion: Stew, thick hearty stew, made with inferior stouts and porters to show the brewers of those inferior beers what happens when you make something that isn't BLOODY AMAZING!

Drink this if you like: The closest one I can think of to this would be Black Albert by Struise, another ELITE level stout by an ELITE level Belgian microbrewery. I highlight the word ELITE because these beers are the difference between good beer and exceptional beer. It is worth investing in a more expensive bottle of beer, especially if you happen to find something like Tsarina Esra around.