Baltic Porter - Cognac Finish
Brasserie La Débauche

Entirely black body with a hazelnut head with an irregular grain and very fast fading. Aroma of roasts, malt, coffee, chocolate, nuts, licorice, light plum and notes of cognac. On the palate there is a sweet entry, milk chocolate, caramel, dark fruit, then turns to a strong roasting imprint and a bitter and barricaded finish with vinous notes of cognac that warm and give strength to the beer. Bitter and sharp aftertaste. Body and medium carbonation.

L- Held up to a halogen not one photon gets through the blackness. Poured with a 2mm tan head which as often happens at this ABV% soon recedes to a thin ring.
S- Heavy liquor plus charring. The vinious note of the cognac/brandy isn't hard to ID. Deep toasted malt also fights it's way through.
T- Ok, so the barrel ageing has left this seriously vinious. The pungent wine-like note, with the somewhat 'sour' (?) edge of brandy runs very deep and while that had my whole attention suddenly a wood/timber note popped up right into the finish. Somewhere in between all of that is a deep cocoa note too that lingers on the palate before brushed over with cognac-driven ABV%.
F- Pungent! Yet, I get zero ABV%-burn on the swallows, which is a sign of seriously quality brewing.
O- It's a beguiling beer. Deeply pungent, and you might conclude it's profile is over-dominated by the barrels it's been aged in. What's for sure is this beer is making one heck of a statement! It's the type of thing I could enjoy a couple of over Xmas, but it is that full-on it is about as far away from an everyday beer as I could imagine!
As I recall about £6 for a 330ml bottle, from Bacchanalia, Mill Road, Cambridge/UK.
Re: the lable. Just wow. If you think some of the Beavertown labelling with dayglo+aliens etc are 'busy' this one is like a classical reinterpretation in a similar style. Quite WTH is going on between a shrouded skeleton grabbing an eye-mouthed figure around the neck, amongst a sea of bubbles and thunder-bolts... I do not have a clue, but it's a wild graphic!