Imperial Russian Stout is a style of beer that appeared during the 18th century and was so named because it was exported to the Imperial Russian court during the time of Catherine the Great.

It had a very high alcohol content to prevent freezing during the sea voyage across the Baltic.

The best-known example was brewed by Barclay Perkins in Southwark and, after its merger with Courage in the mid 1950s, at Courage's brewery close by Tower Bridge.

When that closed in 1981, the beer moved to John Smith’s at Tadcaster, but disappeared in the mid 1990s when the Scottish Courage group lost interest in speciality beers.

The style has recently been revived by a handful of brewers including Ridgeway, run by former Courage (and Brakspear) brewer Peter Scholey.

Deep chestnut brown in colour with some red highlights, it pours with a thin but steady off-white head. There is an intense, brooding aroma of dark cooked fruit…blackcurrant, plum and elderberry… against a background of liquorice and black coffee.

The flavour is full of dense, heavily roasted malt, with treacle, and masses of dark chocolate. The texture is rich and creamy, with an element of coconut in the aftertaste, and a big, rounded bitterness at the finish.

A huge, rich and thoroughly indulgent beer, for which the brewer, sensibly, does not recommend a “best before”, relying instead on its manifest ageing potential.