Saturday, February 25, 2017

Ölbeat 230: Suomenlinnan Zander Stout

Brewery: Suomenlinnan Panimo
Country: Finland
Style: Foreign Stout 
Abv: 8 %
@RateBeer
What about the beer?
Colour is black with a huge beige head. Aroma has rye bread, roasted malts and dark chocolate. Taste begins with roasted malty and bitter bite. Heavy charcoal-roast with bitter liquorice takes over with ryeish flavours. Towards the end roast and bitterness get heavier, dark chocolate gets in the picture with strong espresso. Aftertaste has strong malty dry roast and cocoa powder bitterness.

Holy shit. Now we have a clear winner of this year's Alko artisan beer round: Foreign Stout with strong roast, bitter, dark chocolate, malts and even espresso. Dark and powerful. Hits the button. Got to store one for later.

This beer was part of Alko's Finnish microbrewery craftbeer selection in spring 2017.

Ölbeat

Avoiding funny but stupid associations like "Zanderstruck" or "Zander and Lightning", the brew's name is the key. Bastion Zander in Kustaanmiekka has been the flag bastion of the Suomenlinna fortress throughout its history. The flag flies in the bastion every year from 12 May to 29 September. So, theme and mood of the brew help in selecting the style of the song.

HIM: This Fortress of Tears (YouTube)

From the 2003 album Love Metal, the song was written by Ville Valo.