wrapping up

With anticipation, the door opens on slot 24...and it's a strong dark Belgian.  Well, at least it's dark.  This collaboration between Guineu and Juguetes Perdidos might be fitting, in fact, for the holiday, since some Belgian beers do have a certain level of winter-appropriate spice.  I'm cautiously hopeful about Pajaro Viudo.  If it turns out to be a disappointment, I can say that I did have a chocolate stout earlier today (Thank you, Ossegg).

There's a strong whiff of banana, and the beer looks thick and almost oily coming out.  The head is tightly bubbled and deflates slowly.  The flavor starts with bitter and Belgian level of sour, but not quite in the aftertaste you get an odd almost fishy sort of taste.  Well, not fishy exactly, more like seaweed.  It's like a miso was added to the beer at some point.  Going with the look, there's a very full sensation that goes along with the liquid; it is smooth, but there's a good amount of weight in it.  The taste seems to contain itself, not expanding or deepening, leaving the drinker in a mood to sip and sip some more.  It's not that it's lacking in taste, but it doesn't have the extravagant explosion that I've come to expect from craft beers.  Still, it's probably good to back off from the excesses a little bit from time to time, and with Beermas starting tomorrow I don't need to dull my sense of taste just yet!

kill the thirst

It's always a good time for a stout, at least for me, so that's the first thing I look for when I decide to go looking.  Sometimes it's even worth asking for a little advice.  There's always something new on the shelves, and the people who put it there ought to know something about it.  That's how I left La Mundial with El Matador, a Russian Imperial Stout created by Juguetes Perdidos, an Argentinian brewery, but produced in Spain by San Frutos.  The reach of craft beer is greater by the day.  I've even just seen that Oso Brewing is distributing in 15 countries now.  The possibilities are endless.

It certainly looks good, appetizing, rich and smooth.  Not a whole lot of head, but it's a resistant little cap.  It's one of the less aromatic stouts, although I might just barely detect a little bit of earth.  The flavor is pleasant, not overly powerful, a dark chocolate sort of essence.  It's not exactly sweet.  There's a good amount of bitter in there, but I'd say less smoke than I was expecting.  It also doesn't have as much of a coffee kick or dark fruity bloom as I'd been lead to believe.  I'm not really disappointed, it's a good enough evening drink as it is.  At first I feel like it has a rough alcohol afterfeel, but it doesn't take long for that to smooth itself out.  Eventually that toasty grain flavor makes its way into the mix, but that leaves it as something like a dark chocolate covered cookie, so no hard feelings at all.

Supplier: La Mundial

Price: €6