Ölmönger's Lair: Beer Meets Whisky - Part 2, Õllenaut Must Eksport

So, it's time for the second part of the experiment. Since the subject is familiar and everyone remembers the first part - Obi-Wan died, the Death Star was destroyed and stuff - let's get directly to the business without any longer prologues.

First 0,5 cl of whiskey to each Glencairn...

Second beer to be messed around with happened to be Õllenaut Must Eksport. Yes, it's a Baltic Porter like Koff Porter was, too. The honest reason for this is that I just had one bottle of this fine Estonian brew lying around, so an idle beer became Ölmönger's plaything. Well, have to admit that it gave me a chance to compare the experiment with the first one.

The whiskies chosen for this round were Maker's Mark from the first part and Auchentoshan Heartwood and Glenmorangie The Quinta Ruban. Maker's Mark still is a quality American bourbon, OK? Auchentoshan Heartwood is a travel retail, NAS (no age statement) Lowland whisky matured in sherry and bourbon casks. Glenmorangie The Quinta Ruban is a partly port-cask matured, altogether 12-year old single-malt Speyside whisky.

...which is not much...

The test

The arrangements were the same as in the first test, so let's not repeat the unnecessary crap here. Only change was that I poured half of the first test's whisky - 0,5 centiliter - to the glass. Otherwise mixing whisky with beer isn't any kind of magic.

The volumes and the abv's of the whisky, the beer and the mixture are presented in this table:

			Must Eksport
Whisky	Whiskey volume (l)	Whisky abv (/1)	Beer volume (l)	Beer abv (/1)	Total abv (%)
Auchentoschan Heartwood	0,005	0,43	0,11	0,083	9,81
Glenmorangie The Quinta Ruban	0,005	0,46	0,11	0,083	9,94
Maker's Mark	0,005	0,45	0,11	0,083	9,90

About the cost of each mixture I can say that a bottle of Must Eksport cost around 3,70 euros in Hops United (R.I.P. & Thanks!). Half centiliter of Quinta Ruban costs around 50 cents and the same amount of Maker's Mark around 30 cents in Alko. Auchentoschan Heartwood was bought from tax-free in a cruise ship, and this dose cost 27 cents. When thinking bottlewise - 33 cl beer and 1,5 cl whisky - the cost would be 4,50 - 5,20 euros per set. Less whisky than last time, so a little cheaper - and so what?

... then filled 'em up with Must Eksport.

The tasting notes

Every mix is black in colour and because of the slow pouring, there's no visible head.

Must Eksport vs. Auchentoshan Heartwood

Aroma has mild roasted malts, coffee and booze. Taste starts with fruity boozy bite. Gently roasted malts and oaky-spicy whisky takes over with some sweet fruity flavours. Towards the end spicy dark fruits or berries come through with sweet boozy bitterness. Aftertaste has pepper-spicy coffee, bitter dark chocolate and oaky-fruity alcohol.

Heartwood is mostly on the driver's seat with sherry and bourbon cask originating fruity, spicy and oaky flavours. However, the porter's roast is present in the start and the the finish lifts up coffee and chocolate. I'd judge this as a rather successful experiment. 

Must Eksport vs. Glenmorangie The Quinta Ruban

Aroma has berries, grapes and hints of chocolate. Taste starts with sweet fruity chocolate. Bitter roast and dark fruits take over with dark chocolate. Towards the end fruity booze, dark chocolate and bitter roast get on top. Aftertaste has boozy dark fruits, pepper spice and bitter dark chocolate.

Wow. Didn't expect that spicy port wine characteristics of Quinta Ruban would get the chocolate flavours rise from the porter so deliciously. Absolutely beautiful combo.

Must Eksport vs. Maker's Mark

Aroma has vanilla, sweet berries and bourbon oak. Taste begins with vanillaish boozy roast. Bitter roast, bourbon vanilla and sweet boozy chocolate take over. Towards the end oaky bitterness and spiced booze step in front with sweet fruity flavours. Aftertaste has wood-roasted dryness, oaky chocolate bitterness and bourbon warmth.

In this case Maker's Mark vanilla, oak and booze clearly drive over the porter. Both roast and chocolate are mostly covered with the bourbon presence. Slightly surprised, since with Koff Porter - another Baltic Porter - a larger volume of whisky had a more pleasant effect. Not bad, but the booze strikes a bit too hard. 

Conclusions

The result hit me with a surprise: this Baltic Porter matched worst with Maker's Mark, the clear winner of the previous experiment. The bourbon just kicked too much and hindered the brew almost completely. Auchentoschan Heartwood takes the silver, since spicy and oaky fruits actually get along with the porter's flavours rather nicely. The gold goes to Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban for getting the spicy and fruity chocolate to the taste for a delicious mixture.

For the next experiment, the beer style changes, for sure. Otherwise, there will be one minor change in the whiskies tested. But that's next time.

Ölbeat

Running on the promised track, here's a newer version of the song. Any guesses on the soundtrack of the last part of the trilogy?

Metallica: Whiskey in the Jar (YouTube)

From the 1998 album Garage Inc., the song is a traditional Irish song.

Skitbit Apr 2017: Radbrew Ivy Mike

Brewery: Radbrew
Country: Finland
Style: Imperial IPA
Abv: 8,5 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is dark orange with a large white head. Aroma has caramel, mango and pineapple. Taste starts with bitter malty caramel. Piny caramel and roughly bitter grapefruit take over. Towards the end harsh pine runs over the fruity caramel flavour. Aftertaste has rough piny dryness and malty grapefruit bitterness.

Somewhat harsh and unbalanced Double IPA. If I was excited about overly striking piny bitterness which covers basically every fruity flavour of the aroma I'd probably be excited. Unfortunately I'm not. This was actually the third time I gave this brew a chance: OlutExpo in October 2015 and the brewery bar in May 2016 were the previous ones. Sad to say that third time wasn't a charm either. It'll take a while to grab something from Radbrew again.

Ölbeat

"For the love of the game or for the love of the money" is a question, that doesn't make sense when we're talking about someone's profession. If someone's making some or a shitload of money when doing something that he/she likes and is good at, it's hypocrite, ridiculous and redundant to even discuss about the theme. Still, a Finnish popstar made a camp-spirited dance track about the theme. Of course the difference between the artist and the brewery is, that Antti Tuisku is already a star and Radbrew has so far shown only camp spirit.

Antti Tuisku: Rahan takii (YouTube)

Released as a single in 2017, the song was written by Jurek, Saara Törmä, Aku Rannila and Antti Tuisku.

Ölbeat 260: Nøgne Ø Sunturnbrew

Brewery: Nøgne Ø
Country: Norway
Style: Smoked Ale (Barley Wine)
Abv: 11 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is very dark brown with a small natural white head. Aroma has campfire smoke, burned malts and boozy sweetness. Taste begins with intense sweet and meaty smoke. Heavily smoked malts and sweet salty liquorice take over with charcoal bitterness and genuine Finnish rye bread. Towards the end boozy bitterness rises beside the smoke with liquorice and faint fruit flavour. Aftertaste has strong smoky bitterness and fruity alcohol warmth.

Powerful smoked Barley Wine - with rye malts. A beer with strong everything: smoke, liquorice, rye, booze and bitterness. Symphony of untamed flavours. Ultraslow sipper. Masterpiece. Nøgne Ø seems to have a problem with brewing imperfect beer.

Ölbeat

Since the beer was originally brewed to celebrate the 21st of December. The day when according to ancient Scandinavian beliefs the sun changed its direction. But instead of picking a pagan folk song, I picked a great sun-themed song from a classic heavy metal band. Because the brew is heavy. And great.

Black Sabbath: Under the Sun / Every Day Comes And Goes (YouTube)

From the 1972 album Vol. 4, the song was written by Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward.

Ölmönger's Lair: Beer Meets Whisky - Part 1, Sinebrychoff Koff Porter

Most of you don't probably know but I fell in love with fine whisky few years before I became a beer fan. The turn just happened overnight one day. Or the next day, if we're completely honest, because the night usually is between two days, not in the middle of one, all right?

Getting very slowly towards the point, the recent boom of barrel-aging has made me wonder, what is the point of barrel-aging i.e. storing the beer for some time from one month to one year in a barrel that used to contain spirit or wine. Yes, you'll get some of the flavours of the barreled whiskey, rum, cognac or wine to the brew and, if the result is good, the flavour from the barrel supports the original aromas and flavours of the beer and adds some features from the barrel's previous contents to them. Someone with some better knowledge about the chemistry inside the barrel could give us a little more complex explanation, but... who cares?

However, the question of a former standard whisky sipper is: can the flavours of the spirit be transferred to the beer without a rather long barreling process? Like with mixing a small dose of whisky with a larger dose of beer. The question is relevant (Oh, really?), because both the flavour and the price of the substance have some meaning, when a beer lover thinks about buying something good to drink. In my eyes, the barrel-aged brews have notably higher prices than the same style beers without the barreling have.

Since this is a case of home testing, the number of different kind of whiskies is limited. So, to make the test more relevant (Really really?), it would be nice to have some different-style beers to be test. However, for the first three parts - "the original trilogy" - I stayed on the comfort zone and picked two Baltic porters and one Scotch ale. Possibly, in the future there'll be some unorthodox, doomed and probably failed combinations involving, let's say, German bocks and any substyle of India Pale Ales. Time will tell.

First, 1 cl of each whisky to a Glencairn...

First beer to be tested had to be Sinebrychoff Porter, of course. Don't even ask why. Well, it's rather cheap, it's excellent on its own and its style seems to be suitable for barrel-aging. Enough good reasons or reasons good enough, if any are needed.

The whiskies involved in this experiment are Glenmorangie Lasanta, Ardbeg 10 Year Old and Maker's Mark. Glenmorangie Lasanta is a partly sherry-cask matured, altogether 12-year old single-malt Speyside whisky. Ardbeg Ten is a rather heavy, peat-smoky classic single-malt Islay whisky. Maker's Mark is a straight Kentucky bourbon whiskey. In my opinion, all of them taste at least fine by themselves - acquiring bad or mediocre tasting spirits to one's own shelf would be rather expensive and, clearly, very stupid (Forgetting that this is a beer blog, right?).

... then a closer look to the amount and the color of each whisky...

The test

Enough with the babbling. Let's get to the details of the test. For the first test I poured approximately one centiliter of whisky to the bottom of a Glencairn glass. Then I shared one 33 cl bottle of Koff Porter as evenly as I could by eye. Before smelling and tasting I used a simple teaspoon to mix the liquid up. If the measurements were even close to the desired ones, there would have been 1 cl of whisky and 11 cl of beer in each glass.

The volumes and the abv's of the whisky, the beer and the mixture are presented in this table:

			Koff Porter
Whisky	Whisky volume (l)	Whisky abv (/1)	Beer volume (l)	Beer abv (/1)	Total abv (%)
Glenmorangie Lasanta	0,01	0,46	0,11	0,072	10,43
Ardbeg Ten	0,01	0,46	0,11	0,072	10,43
Maker's Mark	0,01	0,45	0,11	0,072	10,35

About the cost of each mixture I can say that a bottle of Koff Porter costs around 3 euros in Alko, Finland. One centiliter of Glenmorangie or Ardbeg Ten costs around 1 euro, and Maker's Mark's price for 1 cl is a little under 60 cents. When thinking bottlewise - 33 cl beer and 3 cl whisky - the cost would be 4,80 - 6 euros per a dose. So, that's the cost - so what?

After showing the technical data, we'll get to the most important part of the experiment. The result. The experience. The one thing we've been waiting for. The mother of all results, the father of all future experiments. The journey to Beer & Whisky Cocktail Wonderland. And so on.

... finally a bottle of porter shared to the glasses

The tasting notes

Every mix is black in colour and has a bit varying, but still rather small beige head. As you can see from the pic above.

Koff Porter & Glenmorangie Lasanta

Aroma has berry-fruit liquor and coffee beans with hints of roast. Taste begins with gentle fruity and oaky roast. Dark-roasted coffee and spicy booze take over. Towards the end fruity and vanilla-spicy whisky gets mixed with bitter coffee-chocolate with an oaky twist. Aftertaste has slightly sweet fruity liquor, roasted bitterness and dark chocolate.

It's clear that the whisky dominates this. Fruits, spices and oak dominate and belong to the qualities of sherry-barrel-matured Highland whisky. Though, there are elements of  Porter present - roast, coffee and chocolate - that appear in the taste more near the finish. Good stuff - the fruity part is the one I could cut out. 

Koff Porter & Ardbeg Ten

Aroma has campfire smoke, tar and charcoal with some spices. Taste starts with powerfully bitter tar and smoke. Strong tar and smoke flavours dominate completely over the thin roasted malts in the background. Near the finish the tarry smoke grows sweeter with liquorice and roast getting through. Aftertaste has heavy campfire smoke with bitter roast and alcohol kick.

The "Ten" completely runs over Koff Porter - only the late hoppy bitterness somehow manages to show up. Otherwise it's very much of campfire smoke and tar followed by a boozy kick in the finish. The tiny liquorice part is probably a mix of whiskey tar and beer roast. It seems that a strongly smoked beer easily takes the power from a beer style based on roasted malts. For a lover of heavily smoked Islay whiskies this tastes nice but it's pretty one-dimensional and tough to drink.    

Koff Porter & Maker's Mark

Aroma has sweet bourbon vanilla and oak with caramel and booze. Taste begins with spicy roasted vanilla kick. Oaked vanilla, roasted malts and sweet milk chocolate take over. Near the finish bourbon qualities - vanilla, oak, caramel and booze - get over everything while some sweet bitterness appears. Aftertaste has bourbon vanilla-oak-caramel heaven with dark chocolate and dry roasted bitterness.

The bourbon presence is beautiful and dominant. Sweet vanilla, caramel and oak are everywhere "filtering" the other flavours but letting the Porter's original flavours through a bit enhanced. Especially bourbon caramel and vanilla seem to pair perfectly with the beer's chocolate. Excellent - one of the top beer flavours I've had recently. And I haven't been drinking much of bad beer lately.

Conclusions

In the end, the preference order of the beer-whiskey mixes is pretty clear:

• Maker's Mark is the clear winner: only whisky of this test that really enhances the qualities of the brew, others more or less suck the power from the beer. A delicious combo.
• Glenmorangie Lasanta takes the silver medal in this competition, because only the fruity flavour is the only thing that doesn't fit to the beer style. Ok, but nothing too special.
• As much as I love sipping standard Ardbeg by the fireplace, it has to be placed last because of the too strong dominance: Koff Porter turned completely to a heavily smoked strong ale. Failure - probably expected, but still a failure.

For the next experiment, I have to change the whiskies at least partially and use a little less, probably a half of the tested amount of spirit. Just out of curiousity.

Ölbeat

The song choice probably explains itself. Would it surprise you too much to tell that there's more of this kind to come?

The Dubliners: Whiskey in the Jar (YouTube)

Released originally as a single in 1968, the song is a traditional Irish song.

Ölbeat 259: Ôllenaut Turbahunt

Brewery: Õllenaut (in Estonian)
Country: Estonia
Style: Smoked Ale
Abv: 11,2 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is copper brown with no visible head. Aroma has peaty smoke, smoked meat and sweet malts. Taste starts with heavily peated bitterness. Strong peated meaty smoke with caramel malts takes over. Towards the end smoke and sweetness are accompanied by gentle fruity bitterness. Aftertaste has sweet malty smoke and bitter fruits.

Seriously and heavily peated Smoked Ale. Behind the foggy curtain there's a solid malty brew. Fruits and bitterness hop along from the last station. Superb strong-flavoured stuff from the Estonian peat hounds.

Ölbeat

Of course, there sometimes is smoke without the fire. However, in this case we surely get both. Since the brew is kinda wild stuff, I had to look for an artist with the same kind of quality. The search didn't last long - the only reasonable "opponent" was Thin Lizzy. Philo and the gang will get their sound heard later, for sure.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Fire (Vimeo, Live)

From the 1967 album Are You Experienced, the song was written by Jimi Hendrix.

Ölbeat 258: Anderson's Hannibal

Brewery: Anderson's
Country: Estonia 
Style: Imperial Stout
Abv: 9,5 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is black with a small beige head. Aroma has milk chocolate, coffee and vanilla - soft but devious. Taste starts with heavy roast and bitter cocoa. Bitter dark chocolate and roasted fresh espresso take over with some boozy spices in the background. Near the finish bitter cocoa liquor with vanilla flavour and roasted malts kick in. Aftertaste has dry roast, bitter dark chocolate and warm alcohol boost.

Killer Imperial Stout. Magnificently delicious dark chocolate on top, supported by espresso, vanilla and some boozy kick. It hasn't got much better than this. Déjà vu to Rain Shadow, perhaps? Seems that Anderson's gypsy brewery really knows the business.

Ölbeat

The beer's name has a (probably imagined) reference to Hannibal Lecter. But there's no need for the classical music from Silence of the Lambs. There were couple of matching songs from the band. Finally, this track was chosen over Fear of the Dark, just because I like this more.  

Iron Maiden: Can I Play With Madness (YouTube)

From the 1988 album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, the song was written by Adrian Smith, Bruce Dickinson and Steve Harris.

Ölbeat 257: Finch Fascist Pig

Brewery: Finch Beer Co.
Country: United States
Style: American Strong Ale
Abv: 8 % 
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What about the beer?

Colour is copper brown with a large natural white head. Aroma has stingy bitter citrus, hay and caramel malts. Taste begins with biting bitter citrus. Sweetish caramel malts and bitter grapefruit take over with spicy dark fruit side tones. Towards the end caramel malts get in front with gently piny bitterness. Aftertaste has bitter grapefruit, dry malts and alcohol warmth.

Fruity and malty American Strong Ale. Bitter citrus and caramel malts play together nicely. Some spices on the way, and the booze shows up only in the end. Pretty delicious.

Ölbeat

Fascist Pig somehow reminds us of Horse's Ass Sweat Pig Vomit, don't you think? Only by the name and the label, though. Staying with the theme, I selected a loyal cover of a heavy metal classic. It wasn't the easiest song for Mike Patton to start with in a new band.

Faith No More: War Pigs (YouTube)

From the 1989 album The Real Thing, the song was written by Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward.

Ölbeat 256: Bidassoa Larrun

Brewery: Bidassoa Basque Brewery (in Spanish)
Country: Spain
Style: Imperial IPA
Abv: 8,5 % 
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What about the beer?

Colour is cloudy copper brown with a large natural white head. Aroma has pineapple, mango, orange and caramel. Taste begins with biting bitter fruits and malty caramel. Piny and malty bitterness takes over with caramel malts and a slice of grapefruit. Towards the end bitter pine seems to rise above all. Aftertaste has oaky-piny-fruity bitterness, malty-nutty dryness and alcohol bite.

Powerfully piny and malty Imperial IPA. Pine clearly dominates but there are fruits clearly present. Alcohol bites in the aftertaste. Not exactly my cup of tea in the style but tasty anyway. Memories from last summer's Craft Beer Helsinki were better. Nevertheless, the first beer from Spain in the blog.

Ölbeat

Larrun is a 907 meter high mountain top situated at western Pyrenees on the border of France and Spain. It is a sacred place in Basque mythology, said to be the home of the first serpent, Lehensugea and later a gathering place of witches. I grabbed onto the myth of the serpent but chose the band from the other end of Europe.

Sirenia: Serpent (YouTube)

From the 2015 album The Seventh Life Path, the song was written by Morten Veland.

Ölbeat 255: Ôllenaut Linnutee Double Milk Stout

Brewery: Õllenaut (in Estonian)
Country: Estonia
Style: Sweet Stout
Abv: 8 %
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What about the beer?
Colour is black with a small vanishing beige head. Aroma has milk chocolate, coffee, roasted malts and alcohol. Taste starts with sweet roasted malts. Roasted malts and sweet alcohol take over with coffee and chocolate hints Towards the end sugared coffee and milk chocolate get through with rising bitterness. Aftertaste has sweet coffee, bitter roast and cocoa-flavoured liquor.

Sweet and strong Milk Stout. Roast, alcohol and sweetness dominate, but coffee, chocolate and bitterness get their share of the spotlight, too. A bit too sweet and boozy to hit the perfect spot, but definitely this has strength and complexity. Ôllenaut has created a fine dessert stout.

Ölbeat

The sweetness of the brew steers the choice towards mainstream rock. 'Linnutee' is Milky Way in Estonian, so instead of picking any of the electro-disco-whatever track available on the theme, I turned to this 80's classic from Australia. The song was nicely covered by Sia Furler in 2010.

The Church: Under the Milky Way (YouTube)

From the 1988 album Starfish, the song was written by Steve Kilbey and Karin Jansson.

Ölbeat 254: Paljas Session Saison

Brewery: Henricus (brewed at Brouwerij Anders!)
Country: Belgium
Style: Saison
Abv: 4,6 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is hazy lemon yellow with a huge overwhelming white head. Aroma has yeast, stingy citrus sourness and some apple. Taste starts with violently spiking citrus tartness boosted with high carbonation. Sour-tart lemon juice takes over with yeasty bitterness. Towards the end some sweeter and rounder citrus flavours get mixed to the sour-bitter basic taste. Aftertaste has citrus sourness and malty dryness.

Surprisingly tasty Saison. Opening the cork made the loudest "tschiff" sound in a while. Strong fruity sour taste for this abv. Great brew with a couple of warm meat sandwiches. Don't believe I found this reasonably priced in a local supermarket.

Ölbeat

Don't usually like the "session" definition in a beer's label but this time it gave me the idea on the song. Relaxing slow session music, without the risk of getting stuck in the elevator, here you go.

Red Hot Chili Peppers: Soul to Squeeze (YouTube)

From the 1993 soundtrack of Coneheads (originally left out of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, 1991), the song was written by Anthony Kiedis, John Frusciante, Flea and Chad Smith.

Ölbeat 253: Beer Hunter's Mufloni Umbalabisse

Brewery: Beer Hunter's (in Finnish)
Country: Finland
Style: Premium Lager
Abv: 4,5 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is hazy straw yellow with a large white head. Aroma has lemon and grainy malts. Taste starts with biting sour-bitter citrus. Biting bitter grapefruit takes over with dry grainy malts. Near the finish the dry-bitter flavour gets piny notes. Aftertaste has piny-malty dryness and grapefruit bitterness.

Mild but excellent hopped Lager. Citrus, malts and piny flavours are nicely present. Believe or not, this was brewed an American football team Pori Bears for their 35th anniversary. Much better than most of the band-label beers available. And much better than the official Super Bowl beer.

Ölbeat

In American football, they aren't so much after the goals but touchdowns, right? Don't know or give a shit about the game, but it's nice to see that sport clubs want to have their own brews for celebration and have them brewed in small local breweries. That's punk and so is this.

Blink-182: Touchdown Boy (YouTube)

From the 1995 album Cheshire Cat, the song was written by Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus.

Ölbeat 252: Emelisse Black & Tan Bruichladdich BA

Brewery: Brouwerij Emelisse (in Dutch)
Country: Netherlands
Style: Imperial Stout 
Abv: 10,5 % 
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What about the beer?

Colour is black with a small tan head. Aroma has roasted malts, espresso, salty liquorice and dark chocolate. Taste starts with oaky dry bitter roast. Oaky roasted malts, strong espresso and bitter liquorice take over. Towards the end oaky salty liquorice and bitter dark chocolate rise in front. Aftertaste has very dry oak, heavy roast and boozy bitter liquorice.

Powerfully bitter and extra dry Imperial Stout. Roasted malts meet aggressive bitter hops. Bruichladdich gives its dry oak and strengthens the liquorice flavour. Result is supersmooth and delicious barrel-aged brew. These seem to be a modern Dutch tradition.

Ölbeat

"Hey I'm your life / And I no longer care." Heavy bitterness. When taken out of the beery context we get to the darker side of everyday life. The emptiness and the anger when you realize the life you've lived has been steered by someone or something else. Luckily, the beer and the beeroholic are far from that state.

Metallica: Sad but True (YouTube)

From the 1991 album Metallica, the song was written by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich.

Ölbeat 251: Sori Laudatur XVI

Brewery: Sori Brewing
Country: Estonia 
Style: American Strong Ale
Abv: 11 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is thick dark brown with a small tan head. Aroma has chocolate, caramel, vanilla and spicy alcohol. Taste starts with bourbonish spicy kick. Sweet caramel malts with chocolate and bittersweet fruits take over with hints of spicy smoke. Towards the end gently smoky bitterness with spicy and fruity oak flavour gets through. Aftertaste has fruity boozy bitterness and spicy oaky dryness.

Extremely tasty American Strong Ale with oak, smoke and spice from the Macallan and Glenmorangie whisky barrels. Would be nice to know what was in the barrels before Sori beer. Anyway, this goes to the same excellent section with bourbon barrel-aged Arrogant Bastard. World class brew, worth some praise. Seems that 2016 was an excellent year for Sori. Just waiting for the "XVII With Honors". ;)

Ölbeat

This one goes out to the brewery. The Gorillaz' song is about realizing how feeling good personally has led to excess consumption and hedonism. So the "Feel Good Inc." - or the world based on material goods - can feel like a prison after one realizes it doesn't actually feel good. I think Sori people are well on the way to the completely opposite direction: feeling good from making other people feel good... And before digging myself any deeper into the hole of pseudo-philosophical crap, I'm cutting it.

Gorillaz feat. De La Soul: Feel Good Inc. (YouTube)

From the 2005 album Demon Days, the song was written by Damon Albarn, Brian Burton and David Jolicoeur.

Ölbeat 250: Magic Rock Cannonball

Brewery: Magic Rock Brewing
Country: England 
Style: India Pale Ale
Abv: 7,4 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is hazy light orange. Aroma has grapefruit, orange and mango. Taste begins with biting piny and bitter grapefruit. Fresh grapefruit-lemon juice takes over with a piny twist and some sour candy. Towards the end bitter pine and grapefruit with a bunch of sweet orange get on top. Aftertaste has fresh grapefruit-lemon bitterness and fruity piny dryness.

Excellent super-drinkable fruity India Pale Ale. Fresh citrus lead by grapefruit and strong pine all the way. Simple but solid. Right kind of first impression by Magic Rock.

Ölbeat

Bring your own booze, bring your own bombs... What's the difference? Huge, of course, when you think about it. But nevertheless, despite the critical message of the song, I matched it with this beer explosive. Call it playing with a serious matter if you like.

System Of A Down: B.Y.O.B. (YouTube)

From the 2005 album Mezmerize, the song was written by Daron Malakian and Serj Tankian.

Ölbeat 249: To Øl Black Ball Porter

Brewery: To Øl
Country: Denmark (brewed in Belgium)
Style: Imperial Porter
Abv: 8 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is black with a huge beige head. Aroma has charcoal roast, espresso and burned liquorice. Taste begins with biting bittersweet roast. Bitter charred malts take over with notes of espresso, dark chocolate and liquorice. Towards the end bitter citrus flavours get mixed with the charred roast. Aftertaste has fruity bitterness and dryish malty roast.

Heavily roasted and bitter, fruity-turning Imperial Porter. Start is completely owned by bitter charred-roasted malts, but the finish shows the citrus in the bitterness. Strong and complex. Excellent.

Ölbeat

Charred fruity roughness made me look for some rock with balls. Ended up with broken ones and power rock from Down Under.

AC/DC: Ballbreaker (YouTube)

From the 1995 album Ballbreaker, the song was written by Angus Young and Malcolm Young.

Ölbeat 248: Ruosniemen Arkkitehti

Brewery: Ruosniemen Panimo
Country: Finland
Style: India Black Ale
Abv: 6,1 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is dark cola brown with a two-finger thick natural white head. Aroma has roasted malts, sweet liquorice and orange. Taste begins with charcoaly bitter roast. Bitter roast and mild grapefruit take over with some liquorice side tone. Towards the end grapefruit and pepper spices come through with gentle pine. Aftertaste has dry charcoal and piny bitter roast.

Decent and tasty India Black Ale. Nicely versatile flavours: roast dominates the start, but citrus strikes through near the finish. Some exciting peppery spice near the finish, too. However, the body seems to be a bit thin - the taste doesn't have a firm grip. Good stuff from the Poriginal brewery, anyway.

Ölbeat

Well, don't know if the beer can fill the boots of the song, but this was actually decided before the first sip. It just was about time to have some Sabbath on the blog after a short break. Actually, the match ain't so bad.

Black Sabbath: Spiral Architect (YouTube)

From the 1973 album Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, the song was written by Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward.

Ölbeat 247: Swannay Island Hopping

Brewery: Swannay Brewery
Country: Scotland
Style: Golden Ale
Abv: 3,9 % 
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is clear golden yellow with a small white head. Aroma has lemon, malts, butter and some sweet fruits. Taste begins with fruity bitter malts. Sour-bready malts and bitter citrus take over. Towards the end sour and bitter citrus gets through with some sweeter fruits lurking in the background. Aftertaste is grainy-malty dry, citrus-oily sour-bitter and in the very end even fruity sweet.

Unbelievably tasty low abv (3,9 %!) ale. Pale malts meet fruity New Zealand hops in a crisp and fresh way. Many kinds of citrus present - sour, bitter and even sweet. Very drinkable, still.

Ölbeat

A light but refreshing ale from a brewery in Orkney, Scotland. The singer of this trio was born in Orkney, and the trio's name Lau means "natural light" in Orcadian dialect. The brew was naturally light, so it's a match.

Lau: Ghosts (YouTube)

From the 2011 album The Bell That Never Rang, the song was written by Kris Drever, Martin Green and Aidan O'Rourke.

Ölbeat 246: Maku Amorphis Lager

Brewery: Maku Brewing
Country: Finland 
Style: Premium Lager
Abv: 4,6 % 
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is straw yellow with a small white head. Aroma has grainy malts, lemon and hay. Taste begins with malty bitter bite. Grainy malts with some citrus tartness take over. Towards the end malts get fruity sweet tones. Aftertaste has malty dryness and fruity bitterness.

Nice pale lager. Expected nothing, got some good malty and bitter taste. Goes down easy and quick. Not every brew has to be a journey to wonderland - just a little lift is sometimes great.

Ölbeat

Since the beer was brewed as Finnish rock band Amorphis' signature brew, the artist is easy to pick. For the song I followed the path of commercial simplicity and took the title track of their newest album.

Amorphis: Under the Red Cloud (YouTube)

From the 2015 album Under the Red Cloud, the song was written by Santeri Kallio and Pekka Kainulainen.

Ölmönger Tales: New Brewery, Beer Festival & Stuff

The blog personality Ölmönger heard a rumour that the beeroholic Ölmönger has a bunch of things going on. The blogger put his amateur journalist hat on and attacked the wanna-be hipster side personality with some questions. Get ready for the best interview ever.

* * *

So, the word on the street says that you're starting to brew?

Hell yeah. Doing my share of beer culture and giving something back to the beer community. Getting older and wiser. Growing to be a better person. Going commercial as soon as possible. It's going to be huge.

Wait a minute. Commercial? How? You haven't done a single homebrew yet.

Well, sometimes you have to triple jump before you learn to crawl. Even monkeys can be tought to brew, so since I don't own a monkey and don't care for child labour, I'm teaching myself. The washing machine turns nicely into a mash tun, the words aren't so different, see: wash - mash. And I've got enough kettles for boiling, ya know. And somehow the tumble dryer will turn into a fermenter. At least there's some organic stuff already there. From my socks and the lady's panties. Some natural bacteria and yeast for great Belgians like Leffe. Awesome, right?

Time and temperature is everything.

Right. Very... interesting. Do you think that there's room for a fifth commercial brewery in Pori?

Pori? You're thinking that I'd compete in the same league with Beer Hunter's and Ruosniemi. Hell no. I'm catching some bigger fish, not even peeing in that direction. The aim is much higher than to settle to the destiny a low quality microbrewer. The brews will be great - experimental, ideally having the flavour and complexity of delicious lagers, say, Bud Light, Koff Lite or Carlsberg. There's surely an open market for these kind of brews among the beer fanatics and experts. The yearly festival will boost the success of the brewery.

Festival? I thought you were against the festivals.

No, I'm not. Where does the media get these false accusations? But still, this would be completely different kind of festival. Better. Not many breweries, just one - mine. Not any special rare available-only-here barrel-aged sour watermelon octopus-arm milk stouts, just pale lagers or only one great. The program, that would be the killer.

All right. What would the program be like then?

Good question. You're getting there. Right. It would be all about discussion on beer. Well, not actually on beer itself but at least two topics attached to it. Ok?

First would be beer culture. I know, I know. There's already been a lot of discussion around it. But the focus wouldn't be so clear, coherent and well-defined it has recently been. We would step out from the meaningfulness of the ongoing discussion. Just chit-chat pointlessly around the topic like the word wouldn't mean a shit. Defining the term completely wrong. Creating a concept out of blah. Talking about Finnish beer culture in separation from beer's status in Finnish culture. Comparing our beer culture to other countries' beer cultures and judging it good or bad. Looking at the beer culture only with the eyes of a beer enthusiast or beer journalist. Basically, grabbing onto the nonsense that isn't present in the ordinary discussion about the topic. Just for fun - beer culture first. Beer culture. First.

Second would be another usual topic. Alcohol politics in Finland. Instead of taking the aspect of the common discussion where people fluently combine the pros and cons of liberal and conservative views onto the subject, analyze them and make sensible arguments, the rationality of that kind of debate would be abandoned. People would be forced to two completely separate camps. The pro-liberal/contra-conservative side would take the selfish point of view: whine how bad the monopoly is or how the beer costs too much, claim that it should be everyone's own business how they consume beer and show worry about how it makes living difficult when beer isn't delivered straight to your fridge and when beer is not made to look like the most important thing in an individual's life. The pro-conservative/contra-liberal side would only moan about the unproved problems and health issues that the wider availability or lower taxation would cause, forget completely about people's ability to think for themselves and shut up about the alcohol tourism from Finland to the Baltic countries. That kind of "he's right who shouts loudest" opinion battle between idiots and nitwits would be refreshing compared to the intelligent discussion we're having right now. It would be pointless and idiotic like election debates are and Finnish rap battle would be but man, it would be entertaining and tickets would be quickly sold out. Never mind the bollocks, here's the beer debate.

Whatcha think? Can you make it? It'll probably be on 29-31 February next year. It will be huge.

Today's cheers!

Gee, haven't made plans that far yet. Any news on the blog?

Not much to tell, actually. The breweries are clearly competing, who'll get their sample brews to the blog next, as usual. You wouldn't believe how nasty and competitive Belgian monks can be towards each other. Had to put Tree House on hold for a while, probably will tell them soon that as a heterosexual I'm not that keen on brews named Julius. It's pretty annoying when there are more than six shipments from different breweries at the same time at the front door. Of course, it's still hard to handle all the money breweries and distributors are paying for the stories. Makes one think about leaving the day job, you know? But I can't do that, can I? Otherwise it's pretty clear that the blog's story will stop after Ölbeat 250. Ok?

Anything you would like to say to the blog readers?

No.

Please? [shows a 24-pack of Karhu III]

Damn. All right. Happy April Fool's day to everyone. Don't eat too much herring and drink too much Omnipollo's Yellow Belly today. 

Thanks for the interview.

Don't give a shit. Get the f**k outta here. Now.

Ölbeat

Really? Well, that's only what you think.

The Who: Won't Get Fooled Again (YouTube)

From the 1971 album Who's Next, the song was written by Pete Townshend.