Ölbeat 019: Teerenpeli Julmajuho

Brewery: Teerenpeli
Country: Finland
Style: Smoked Porter
Abv: 7,7 %
@RateBeer

'Cruel John' looks like this in Finland

Teerenpeli, founded in 1995, is one of the oldest still operating microbreweries in Finland. Situated in Lahti in Southern Finland, the brewery started with a 60-litre boiling kettle in the original Restaurant Teerenpeli. Nowadays the yearly production is 500.000 litres of brews, and there are six Teerenpeli restaurants in five cities. The brewery has many of its brews available around the country.

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

What about the beer?
Colour is very dark brown to black with medium beige head. Aroma has roasted malts with smoked meat. First bite is semi-dry roasted malts. Smoke starts mild but quickly explodes to a campfire flavour with meaty bite. Palate adds late bitter hops and some plum. There's sweet smoky maltiness in the aftertaste.

Altogether, the marriage of smoke and malt works and makes the experience great. High quality special stout from Lahti.

Ölbeat

Smoky tone has been an inspiration for many songs, so there's plenty to choose from. Despite the temptation to pick a classic heavy rock tune I chose this acoustic track:

Ed Sheeran: I See Fire (YouTube)

From the soundtrack of the 2013 film The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the was written by Ed Sheeran himself. Sheeran was asked by the film's director Peter Jackson to make a folk song to be played first during the closing credits. He wrote and recorded the song - almost the released version - during one day after watching the early screening. The lyrics of the song are attached to the dragon Smaug destroying Laketown in the end of the movie to the horror of Bilbo. I attached the song to Julmajuho not only because of similar theme but because it was the first beer from the brewery that made me see passion and inspiration - shortly: fire.