Ölbeat 048: Huvila Arctic Circle Ale

Brewery: Malmgård
Country: Finland 
Style: Spiced Ale
Abv: 7,3 %
@RateBeer

Northern brew spiced with rye and juniper

What about the beer?
Colour is thick dark brown with medium vanilla head. Aroma has sweet malts, mild toffee and vanilla. Taste starts with moderately hoppy first bite, but quickly turns to sweet malts with herbal notes (juniper?) and rye bread flavour. Toward the finish we get hoppy alcohol-twisted bitterness. Aftertaste has sweet bitterness and alcohol warmth.

Very enjoyable spiced malty ale. The juniper twigs and rye malt used in the brewing really come out and give plenty of unique taste to the beer. It was really fortunate that I managed to grab a bottle of this in February, since right now it's not available. But I'm sure we'll get more in fall. 

Ölbeat

Arctic Circle as an inspirator for and a theme of the brew made me look for a song that reminds me of the northernmost parts of the world. Despite the fact that this particular song was inspired by a solar eclipse in Europe, the Finnish band and the name of the song just popped up to be matched with the beer:

Nightwish: Sleeping Sun (YouTube)

From the 1999 MaxiCD Sleeping Sun (Four Ballads of the Eclipse), the song was written by the band's keyboardist-songwriter Tuomas Holopainen. The song was re-recorded and re-released in 2005 for the compilation album Highest Hopes.