Ölbeat 003: Top Fuel Hippie Juice IPA

Brewery: Top Fuel Beer Company
Country: Finland
Style: India Pale Ale
Abv: 7,2 %
@RateBeer

Juicy Fruit for Hippies and Friends

Top Fuel Beer Company operates in Lohja near the Finnish capital area. It's a fairly new microbrewery - started in early 2014 - and has yet a few brews available. Which is smart and customer-friendly, by the way: it's better to have couple of good brands than to have one OK with dozen drinkable or non-drinkable. Hippie Juice is the second beer I have tasted from the brewery and I'm still impressed.

What about the beer?
Colour is cloudy orange with huge bubbly white head. Aroma has a mild scent of hops and orange. Taste combines medium bitter hops with grapefruit. Nice balance. Palate gets hit with peach. Aftertaste is mostly hoppy with some sweet fruit (orange, peach, pineapple?).

Very enjoyable beer. Reminded me of sunshine, warmth and summer in the middle of everlasting dark fall in December(!) 2015. Doesn't bring chills and thrills with complexity, but ain't in any way predictable. The brewery stays as an interesting one.

 

Ölbeat

Because of the summerlike taste and the hippie-themed name of the beer, the choice was clear from the first sip:

The Mamas & the Papas: California Dreamin' (YouTube)

Released in December 1965 and from the 1965 album If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, the song started the folk rock singers' success story. It gives a sample of what was to become the group's trademark: punctual vocal harmonies, this time led by Denny Doherty. The song was written by John and Michelle Phillips, the couple that formed the other half of the group. The lyrics of the song tell about the singer's longing for California's summer while having a winter walk and seeing the brown leaves and the grey sky. I longed for just Finnish summer but felt exactly same as the singer while enjoying Hippie Juice.

The song has been covered many times, the latest by Sia in May 2015. The version with Finnish lyrics (1978) is called Kalajoen hiekat and performed by Tapani Kansa. Not in any way worth linking, listening or even mentioning. (Don't.)