Thornbridge - St. Petersburg

What better way is there to round off my borderline worship of Thornbridge than with their 7.4% Imperial Russian stout?  I could have shelled out for the Imperial Oatmeal or the Heather Honey stout but I'm not freakin' made of money, get off my case! Fine! I had the opportunity to buy them but I opted for this because I got greedy and wanted to buy at least 4 other beers too and shelling out £12 on one may have scuppered my plans somewhat. Yet again I got this under the sound advice from the folks at The Bottle Shop in Canterbury.

St. Petersburg smells a lot more playful than it looks, like the child with growth problems trying to play nicely in the park before accidentally breaking someone's leg. It looks like a black widow and I fear it may want to do some bad bad things to me and then gobble me up whole. I best get the jump on it and throw the first punch, only the weak don't embrace things that could knock them on their arse!

The aroma smells of freshly made honeycomb and thick cut marmalade, the kind of honeycomb you get at a carnival and the kind of thick cut marmalade you get at the county fair. It pours like gasoline and has a head like the wash on a pebbly beach after BP have been in town. The depth in flavour is just mesmerising! It goes from hoppy bitterness to creamy milk chocolate back to bitterness which leaves me lapping at the foam remnants in my (super manly) stache in a hopeless attempt to get the taste back. This is a beer you can get philosophical about, this is beer you could sit in a pub and write poetry about, words like "delicious" don't quite sum up what this beer embodies. St. Petersburg is rich without being sticky or cloying, it is bitter sweet without having an unpleasant contrast, it is both a drink you could down and a drink you could savour. It is one of the best stouts I have ever had.

Thornbridge seriously know what they are doing and they could easily take on any Belgian, Czech or German brewery and beat them at their own game if they were so inclined. I'm not saying that out of patriotism either because I bloody love the Belgians and the Czechs and the Germans but Thornbridge really are just that good. Don't believe me? Buy ALL/ANY of their beer and tell me I'm wrong.

Food Suggestion: A lovely, creamy, Stilton with water crackers and a sweet pickle of sorts would go with this like Pumba and that other thing from the Lion King... Killing off beloved characters to scar children for life... That's it!

Drink this if you like: The De Molen stouts and porters are a good place to start if you like this