Ölbeat 020: Hiisi Loviatar

Brewery: Panimo Hiisi
Country: Finland
Style: Barley Wine
Abv: 10,5 %
@RateBeer

The birdy beast from Jyväskylä

Panimo Hiisi (webpages only in Finnish), founded in 2013, is an artisan brewery in Jyväskylä in Central Finland. According to the webpages the brewery's selfish agenda is to make the kind of beer that the brewers themselves would like to drink. Hiisi brews' names are often borrowed from Finnish ancient legends like Kalevala, e.g. Loviatar is the blind daughter of the god of death Tuoni and the underworld queen Tuonetar.

This beer was part of Alko's Finnish microbrewery craftbeer selection in spring 2016.

What about the beer?
Colour is hazy mud-brown with small tan head. Aroma has a strong scent of sweet berries - strawberry & blueberry and distinctive maltiness. Taste starts with a strong combination of sweet rye and strawberry. The strawberry flavour takes slowly over. Palate adds slow hops and taste of alcohol and brings back the malty first bite. Aftertaste is bitter with berry flavours.

Hardcore experience. Extremely enjoyable beer: strong flavours and contrasts but the body keeps the combination together. A little too much of berriness, probably could have gotten a little more out of the rye, but hey, small flaws give character, overall a solid performance.

Ölbeat

The bottle label recommends the beer to be enjoyed with Savonian metal band Verjnuarmu's album Muanpiällinen helevetti. Well, no offence, I didn't, but the picture in the bottle label gave the idea:

Deep Purple: Bird Has Flown (YouTube)

From the 1969 album, Deep Purple, the song was written by keyboardist Jon Lord, vocalist Rod Evans and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. This version of the song is the original album version: a shorter re-recorded version, named The Bird Has Flown, was released as the A-side of the single Emmaretta. The song's music is driven with guitar and bass riffs and drum lines combined with Lord's haunting organ background during the chorus - this longer version ends with almost three minutes jamming and Blackmore's and Lord's solos. The lyrics are built on the phrase 'the bird has flown' referring to one's lost feeling being nothing compared to even negative or childish feelings. Well, Loviatar will certainly offer feeling to the drinker.