Ölbeat 347: Amager / Barrier The Mortician a.k.a Ölmönger's Burial

Brewery: Amager Bryghus (Barrier Brewing Company)
Country: Denmark (United States)
Style: Imperial Stout
Abv: 10,5 %
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is black with a finger-thick beige head. Aroma has dark chocolate, sweet roast and coffee. Taste begins with heavily bitter chocolate-flavoured roast. Dark chocolate, sweet coffee and bitter charcoal roast take over with spicy alcohol. Towards the end bitter dark chocolate with sweet spicy mocha tones come out strongest. Aftertaste has strong bitter roast with dark chocolate, liquorice and pine followed by lasting spicy malty dryness.

Powerfully bitter and roasty Imperial Stout. Strong bitter flavours of roast, dark chocolate and coffee supported by spicy, boozy and malty side tones. Simply beautiful, complex and delicious. Amager never lets me down with dark and heavy stuff.

* * *

My mama said that you should finish what you've started. Well said. There are many beer blogs that have died without any last words like bad TV series that get cancelled after the pilot season without the series' final episode. Where all the good and the bad guys get killed, if the series was worth watching even in the beginning. Like there are TV series born dead that just keep on living, there are beer blogs born dead, but that's a completely different story. Or is it actually?

Anyway, the blog's been dead for over four months now. There have been some things like this and some thing like that on the way of writing blog posts. More interesting things like watching the grass grow and catching up the missed/all episodes of Lost. But the cold truth is that the blog stays dead after the burial - this is the final post of this blog. My and Ölmönger the Blogger's paths are separated for good.

Possibly, even though unprobably, there are some people who would like to know why this blog is finished now. Some others might be wondering, why it took me so long to shoot this bastard against the brick wall. Both are people who are looking for reasons for things. Well, let them be looking. Over and out. Bagged and tagged.


Why are you still there looking at this? Live, enjoy and celebrate, sucker!

Ölbeat

The author's last wish. May this one be granted?

Ramones: Pet Sematary (YouTube)

From the 1989 album Brain Drain, the song was written by Dee Dee Ramone and Daniel Rey.

And one for the audience.

Faith No More: A Small Victory (YouTube)

From the 1992 album Angel Dust, the song was written by Mike Bordin, Roddy Bottum, Billy Gould and Mike Patton.

Ölbeat 329 (BC17 #16): Amager The Sinner Series Pride

Brewery: Amager (in Danish)
Country: Denmark
Style: Imperial Stout
Abv: 10 %
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is black with a small vanishing beige head. Aroma has fruit candy, vanilla and chocolate. Taste starts with boozy fruity bitter roast. Booze-soaked sweet citrus and biting bitter roast take over with liquorice and chocolate side notes. Towards the end sweet orange and bitter citrus-filled liquorice get on top and are joined by roasted boozy flavour. Aftertaste has sweet orange, bitter grapefruit and lasting boozy roast.

Strong citrus-packed Imperial Stout. It's a merciless battle between the roasty-boozy flavours and the bitter'n'sweet citrus. Fierce but beautiful. Superb Impy from the Danish brewgods.

Ölbeat

As U2's Pride (In the Name of Love) is as far as possible from the deadly sin, I couldn't pick it. On the other hand, that wouldn't have matched with the brew. Anyway, I was trapped in the title, so there were many paths to choose from. Soil had that right kind of balance between rough aggressiveness and lyrical self-centeredness in their song, so I picked that.  

Soil: Pride (YouTube)

From the 2004 album Redefine, the song was written by Soil.

Ölbeat 186: Amager Hr. Frederiksen

Brewery: Amager
Country: Denmark
Style: Imperial Stout
Abv: 10,5 %
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is black with a finger-thick beige head. Aroma has heavily roasted malts, strong black coffee and bitter alcohol. Taste starts with strong and bitter charcoal roast. Heavily roasted malts and bitter espresso take over with cocoa hints. Towards the end bitter black coffee and dark chocolate get strongest. Aftertaste has dry bitter roast, dark chocolate, coffee and alcohol warmth (and it lasts pleasantly long).

Unbelievably untamed and powerful Imperial Stout. Roast, coffee and dark chocolate all attack with full throttle as does the bitterness. Extreme beer in the word's best and most fabulous meaning. Amager shows once again world class skill in brewing.

Ölbeat

Don't know Mr./Hr. Frederiksen personally, so I don't know if he is an asshole, a liar, a cheater or a fool. But at least the brew named after him hits you hard, as does this Danish rockabilly metal. (And no, I still don't know what it is with Danish beers and Volbeat.) 

Volbeat: Still Counting (YouTube)

From the 2008 album Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood, the song was written by Michael Poulsen, Anders Kjølholm, Jon Larsen and Thomas Bredahl.

Ölbeat 107: Amager/Surly Todd - The Axe Man

Brewery: Amager (in Danish) / Surly Brewing
Country: Denmark
Style: India Pale Ale
Abv: 6,5 %
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is cloudy orange with a small white head. Aroma has orange, lemon and a flowery hop note. Taste lifts off with sharp fruity bitter bite. Fresh bitter grapefruit with a sweet orange twist takes over. Towards the end sweet-sour citrus fruits and piny dry get in front, some tartness shows up, too. Aftertaste has strong fruity bitterness and light dryness with long-lasting warm feeling.

Delicious citrus-packed India Pale Ale with nice hoppy and growing flavours: it starts biting bitter & fruity, goes through grapefruit-orange domination and ends heavily bitter. Excellent way to show respect to a living brewer legend, Todd Haug from Surly Brewing.

Ölbeat

Since the brew was an act of homage from Amager we'll continue on that line with the matching rhythms. Todd Haug has played and still plays guitar in this thrash metal band since 1984. This song is one from the band's early years.

Powermad: Terminator (YouTube)

From the 1988 EP The Madness Begins, the song was written by Powermad.

Ölbeat 005: Amager/Grassroots Black Nitro

Brewery: Amager Bryghus
Country: Denmark
Style: India Black Ale (instead of the usual Black IPA)
Abv: 7,5 %
@RateBeer

Danish-American Heavy Fuel

Amager Bryghus, a Danish brewery located in the island of Amager by Copenhagen, had convinced me to arrange a second meeting. I had a bottle of The Sinner Series Envy (IPA) at Mallaskukko in Turku and enjoyed it. So a brew made on a recipe by Shaun E. Hill (the brewmaster of Hill Farmstead/Grassroots Brewing) caught my eye in an online shop and was the next victim.

What about the beer?
Colour is black as the night with a thick bubbly beige head. Aroma has a hoppy headnote with some roasted malts on the side. Taste attacks with a dry hops in the foreground, then given some citrus fire support - mainly grapefruit and lemon. Palate adds a very mild taste of roasted malts to the picture. Long aftertaste is dominated by hops with a hint of citrus.

I am positively surprised by the absence of roasted malts in the taste. Kinda used to get some stout-and-porter like burned notes even with a hoppy black ale. A very tasty American IPA with unusual colour. The brewery maintains its exceptionality and attractiveness.  

Ölbeat

Choosing a performer and a song from the same country where the beer was made is rather an exception than a rule, so with this exceptional beer I stay inside the country borders:

Volbeat: Sad Man's Tongue (YouTube)

From the 2007 album Rock the Rebel / Metal the Devil, the song was written by the singer-guitarist Michael Poulsen. The country-style intro and 1st verse with banjo, acoustic guitar and Poulsen's "Elvis-mode" singing explode to a full heavy metal beat for the 2nd verse. The lyrics - with the start - show out the inspiration from Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues. The song tells about a man who in the end has refused to join the army and ended up in prison "with a pocket full of real tales, and a broken guitar mode". A rockabilly-tuned heavy metal song with a country twist matches the mood of Black Nitro. Well, for me, at least.