all they ever wanted to say

It's always a joy to find a beer with a good pun of a name, or an in-your-face shouty name.  La Calavera already has a great name for a brewery, in my opinion, and their cognac barrel stout has the latter sort: Blue Blood Fuck You!!  With two exclamation points, at that.  It's an interesting bottle too, all delicate looking and reminiscent of stronger alcohol than beer.  Although, we should take into account the strength of our modern craft beers, climbing into double digits.  Especially the barrel aged ones.  At 11.8%, this one isn't even that powerful, but it's a damn fine glass of beer.  I only wish the label was more, let's say, explicit.

Should I put a pirate flag in the hallway or something?  Looks boring from here

That barrel aged beer always has a special aroma about it, whatever is in the barrel.  The Blue Blood is no exception: sweet, candy, a tiny bit of woodiness, it's all present.  The color is great, opaque and black as an elitist heart.  Didn't get it to foam too much, but that's probably my pouring mistake.  It's less sweet than the whiskey barrel aged beers, there's more smoke and wood.  It's toasty.  There isn't a very strong alcohol sensation at first, although there is a hint of it that might develop more.  It clings to the sides of the glass when you put it down after a sip, which is interesting since it doesn't have that stickiness in the mouth.  It's thick, but not syrupy.  Some stouts that aren't heavily sweet at first get a little scratchy as they warm up, and there is a touch of that in the Blue Blood.  It develops more of a woody taste than an alcohol fuzz, which brings wine more to my mind than hard liquor.  The beer does get a little bit heavier, as one might expect, but for a barrel aged beer I find it remarkably light and easy to drink.  Quite the danger!

Supplier: Espuma
Price: €5.85