Ölbeat 346: Beer Hunter's Mufloni Hermansson Barley Wine

Brewery: Beer Hunter's (in Finnish)
Country: Finland
Style: Barley Wine
Abv: 11 %
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is dark brown with a thin natural white lace. Aroma has nutty chocolate, caramel malts and dark fruits. Taste starts with bittersweet fruity caramel. Malty caramel and sweet fruits take over with spicy bitterness and hints of chocolate. Towards the end sweet caramel malts, spicy pine and bitter boozy citrus fruits come out strongest. Aftertaste has biting fruity-piny bitterness, boozy spiciness and caramel malty dryness.

Malty and sharp-flavoured Barley Wine. Caramel malts, sweet and bitter fruits, spicy pine and boozy kick dominate. Part of me desires for a little more roundness, another one is very pleased with the rough edges. Rather enjoyable, still probably on its way to excellence?

This beer was part of Alko's Finnish artisanal beer selection in spring 2018.

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I explain the song choice with the place, the situation and the mood, where I enjoyed the bottle with my parents. The song is about the singer being enchanted by a ghost, while I'm enchanted by the old school my parents live in. Visiting there seems to somehow take me to completely other reality, other time and other place. With this kind of classic style beverage, the trip became even more distancing.

Kings of Leon: Find Me (YouTube)

From the 2016 album WALLS, the song was written by Caleb Followill, Nathan Followill, Jared Followill and Matthew Followill.

Ölbeat 335 (BC17 #22): Põhjala Odravein 2016

Brewery: Pôhjala
Country: Estonia
Style: Barley Wine
Abv: 12 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is dark brown with a small natural white head. Aroma has chocolate, peanut butter and caramel. Taste starts with sweet fruity and malty alcohol. Bittersweet raisin and malty caramel take over with boozy coffee and chocolate. Towards the end fruity and malty bitter alcohol gets in front. Aftertaste has strongly bitter raisin-boozy bite followed by malty and fruity dryness.

Sweet and strong Barley Wine. The power of alcohol is pretty much unleashed, but it's fruity and malty with caramel, coffee and chocolate at the same time. Like barrel-aged brew but without aging in the barrel, Põhjala hits the right spot once again.

Ölbeat

Power and aggression but in the same time beauty and sensibility. So it's time for neoclassical metal by the master of the style.

Yngwie Malmsteen: Rising Force (YouTube)

From the 1988 album Odyssey, the song was written by Yngwie Malmsteen and Joe Lynn Turner.

Ölbeat 334 (BC17 #21): Dieu du Ciel Solstice d'Hiver

Brewery: Brasserie Dieu du Ciel
Country: Canada
Style: Barley Wine
Abv: 10,2 %
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is dark brown with a tiny natural white lace. Aroma has caramel malts, raisins and dark fruits. Taste begins with sweet fruity malts. Caramel malts and sweet raisins take over with gentle fruity alcohol bitterness and dark chocolate. Towards the end dark fruity bitterness gets through with strong piny-boozy kick. Aftertaste has lasting fruity bitterness and piny alcohol kick.

Rich and complex Barley Wine. Malts have their time in the spotlight, but in the end hops and strength take control. Pretty delicious. Dieu du Ciel keeps the Maple Leaf high, despite the difficulties in availability here in Finland.

Ölbeat

Since it's named "Winter Solstice" - the day that has the shortest period of daylight - today is the right day in the Northern Hemisphere for this beer. In Finland, the darkness, and possibly the coldness, of winter often makes people turn inside their shell and interact with other people less than during the brighter seasons. I'm not considering it a bad thing. Quite the opposite: everyone needs some time with only oneself every now and then, so why not in the midst of winter?

Black Sabbath: Solitude (YouTube)

From the 1971 album Master of Reality, the song was written by Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward.

Ölbeat 328 (BC17 #15): Humalove Hammer of Sucellus

Brewery: Humalove
Country: Finland
Style: Barley Wine
Abv: 10,5 %
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is dirty cola brown with a thin light lace. Aroma has caramel, chocolate and dark fruits. Taste starts with strong fruity bittersweet bite. Booze-soaked berries and bittersweet malty caramel take over with some dark chocolate in the background. Towards the end piny bitterness, berry sweetness and chocolate-coated malty caramel melt together in a rich-flavoured union. Aftertaste has malty-fruity sweetness, piny bitterness and warm boozy kick.

Caramel-malty and bitter berry-fruit flavoured Barley Wine. Piny flavours strike near the finish and are joined by some alcohol. Sticky and sweet stuff. Liked it a lot. Excellent work by the gypsy brewers from the capital.

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Named after the mallet of a Celtic-Gallic deity of agriculture and wine, the brew needs to be paired with a song about hammers, gods or both. So it's no surprise that I ended up with a power metal track from the land of Zee Germans. The feel-good mood of the song surely annoys somebody. Well, it can't be Slayer all the time, can it?

Freedom Call: Hammer Of The Gods (YouTube)

From the 2016 album Master of Light, the song was written by Chris Bay.

Ölbeat 323 (BC17 #10): Lehe Suur Paks Mastif

Brewery: Lehe Pruulikoda
Country: Estonia
Style: Barley Wine
Abv: 9,6 %
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is thick mahogany brown with a small tan head. Aroma has sweet caramel, chocolate and dark fruits. Taste begins with malty sweet caramel. Sweet caramel malts, chocolate and alcohol-soaked raisins take over with gentle bitterness. Towards the end biting fruity and boozy piny bitterness strikes through and pushes chocolate-caramel flavours to the background. Aftertaste has piny bitterness, fruity malty sweetness and spicy boozy dryness.

Sweet, malty and fruity Barley Wine. Caramel and chocolate flavours dominate in the start, fruits, booze and bitterness hit it in the end. This young vintage version has matured since brewing in 2014, but there's still some sharpness to be rounded. Gladly another bottle will be saved for later inspection.

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Suur Paks Mastif means Big Fat Mastiff. This kinda dog moves completely without any hurry, if at all. Since I decided to put another bottle to sleep for some time, this song was a natural choice.

Zakk Wylde (feat. Corey Taylor): Sleeping Dogs (YouTube)

From the 2016 album Book of Shadows II, the song was written by Zakk Wylde.

Ölbeat 319 (BC17 #6): Sori Anniversary Barley Wine 2017

Brewery: Sori Brewing
Country: Estonia
Style: Barley Wine 
Abv: 11,6 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is dark brown with a small tan head. Aroma has caramel, chocolate and brandy. Taste begins with sweet and boozy bitter fruity bite. Sweet caramel and bitter dark fruits take over with some alcohol kick. Towards the end sweet chocolate and creamy caramel get on top with smoothly bitter and fruity - grapes, plums and raisins - cognac coating. Aftertaste has sweet red grapes, bitter caramel and lasting fruit liquor warmth.

Sweet and fruity barrel-aged Barley Wine. Caramel, dark fruits and cognac play excellent head roles here, some chocolate and lingering gentle bitterness fit in the picture perfectly. Beautiful brew for celebrating both the brewery's 2nd and Finland's 100th anniversary.

Ölbeat

Just something great and Finnish music to accompany this superb brew.

Nightwish: Deep Silent Complete (YouTube)

From the 2000 album Wishmaster, the song was written by Tuomas Holopainen.

Ölbeat 283: Emelisse / Bad Hair White Label Barley Wine (Yura / Old Pulteney BA)

Brewery: Brouwerij Emelisse (Bad Hair Brewing)
Country: Netherlands
Style: Barley Wine
Abv: 12 %
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is dark coffee brown with a thin tan head. Aroma has sweet chocolate, dark fruits and boozy caramel. Taste begins with silky milk chocolate. Fruity caramel sweetness and spicy-oaky whisky takes over with boozy bitterness. Towards the end sweet chocolate rises with warming alcohol and growing bitterness. Aftertaste has bittersweet boozy dark fruits, smooth chocolate and lasting warming alcohol.

Sweet, strong and delicious barrel-aged Barley Wine. Fruits, chocolate, caramel - all in aroma, delivered in flavours, too. The whisky adds oak, spices and booze and enhances fruits and bitterness. At least Old Pulteney is clearly present - and hopefully the name of the other whisky on the label is misspelled (Yura -> Jura). Despite one wrong letter, this is a magnificent brew from Emelisse.

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Barrel-aging is based on experimenting with beer. This experiment was done with fine Scottish whisky barrels. So I searched for experimental rock from Scotland. Had some questions - the brew gave me excellent answers. And there we have it.

Biffy Clyro: Questions and Answers (YouTube)

From the 2003 album The Vertigo of Bliss, the song was written by Simon Neil.

Ölbeat 279: Lehe / St. Erhard Endspiel

Brewery: Lehe Pruulikoda (St. Erhard)
Country: Estonia (Germany)
Style: Barley Wine
Abv: 9,5 %
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What about the beer?
Colour is mahogany brown with a tiny natural white lace. Aroma has caramel, milk chocolate and raisins. Taste begins with sweet slightly boozy caramel. Sweet malty caramel takes over with boozy grapes. Towards the end soft milk chocolate and booze-soaked raisins with gentle fruity bitterness join the caramel flavour. Aftertaste has malty caramel, bittersweet fruits and alcohol bite.

Quite tasty sweet Barley Wine. The required qualities - caramel, fruits, chocolate and boozy bite - are nicely present. There's a bit of rawness in the taste that will probably be rounded by time. Fine Estonian brew.

Ölbeat

Endspiel, the German word, means endgame, the stage of a chess game when there are only few pieces left. If we escalate the meaning to the worldly scale, we're talking about the moment of reckoning, in Finnish: tilinteon hetki . To put things straight I've turned a German name of a beer to a Finnish name of a song, just with only one awkward transition. In the end, it's a great smooth beer paired with a great smooth song. 

Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus: Tilinteon hetki

From the 1997 EP Hävetkää!, the song was written by Timo Rautiainen and Esa Moilanen.

Skitbit May 2017: Ruosniemen Porvari Oloroso Barley Wine

Brewery: Ruosniemen Panimo
Country: Finland
Style: Barley Wine
Abv: 11 %
@RateBeer (it's a 10,5 % version with a different name, hmm...)

What about the beer?

Colour is dark brown with a small tan head. Aroma has caramel, sweet berries, orange and mango. Taste starts with sweet fruity and boozy kick. Sweet cherry liquor and piny booze take over. Towards the end rough sweet and boozy bitterness kicks strong with fruity undertones. Aftertaste has piny bitter booze and lasting oversweet cherries.

Bitter and unrounded Barley Wine. Don't know if it's got something to do with the barrel-aging but rough booze and bitter cherries kick in too hard. No signs of expected smoothness until the finals sips. Damn, what a disappointment after nice anticipation. Sadly, in addition more than one bottle from the brewery have been clearly spoiled - Turisti, Lomittaja, Piirimyyjä, Pikkupomo and Koodari, at least one of each. But this was simply barrel-aging gone bad. Hoping the couple of others are much better.

Skitbit

If this was a bad brew from Pori, it has to be followed by awful music from Pori. When the Finnish word 'porvari' means a burgess, a wealthy inhabitant, its opposite is a beggar, 'kerjäläinen'. The brew didn't make me feel wealthy. On the contrary, I felt like traveling to the kingdom of beggars.    

Dingo: Kerjäläisten valtakunta (YouTube)

From the 1985 album Kerjäläisten valtakunta, the song was written by Neumann.

Ölbeat 187: Malmgård Barley Wine

Brewery: Malmgård
Country: Finland
Style: Barley Wine
Abv: 10,4 %
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is dark reddish brown with a small tan head. Aroma has a strong malty scent, sweet dark fruits and some hops. Taste starts with strongly malty bitterness. Sweet caramel malts and bitter dark fruits take over. Near the finish bitter and slightly piny dryness gets on top with alcohol warmth. Aftertaste has lasting piny bitter dryness and a spike of alcohol.

Tasty Barley Wine with nasty attitude. Strength rolls over, unhidden and unleashed malty power fills the mouth. Supported by sweet fruits, biting bitterness and beautiful long dryness it makes this an unforgettable brew.

Ölbeat

For some reason I decided that this requires a great Nightwish song. Despite most of the songs have a female vocalist - Tarja, Anette or Floor - , my favourite tracks have vocals of the band's bassist Marco Hietala. One the favourites to match a great Finnish brew. Powerful ballad from the edge of the world.

Nightwish: The Islander (YouTube)

From the 2007 album Dark Passion Play, the song was written by Marco Hietala and Tuomas Holopainen.

Ölbeat 177: 't Ij Struis

Brewery: Brouwerij t' Ij
Country: Netherlands
Style: Barley Wine
Abv: 9 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is dark reddish brown with a small tan head. Aroma has dark fruits, raisins and honeyed malts. Taste starts with sweet malty and fruity bite. Silky caramel malts and sweet fruity bitterness dominate. Towards the end smooth vanilla-flavoured chocolate-toffee liquor and bittersweet dark fruits get mixed to the taste. Aftertaste has lasting bittersweet fruits and caramel alcohol with growing dryness.

Absolutely magnificent fruity and malty Barley Wine. Caramel-chocolate malt layers meet dark fruits and boozy flavours. Beautiful aftertaste seems to last forever. This has to be tasted again.

Ölbeat

Dutch word 'struis' means an ostrich which is the logo bird of the brewery. Could Struis be the flagship beer of the brewery or why the name? Don't know so we'll have to stick to the mysterious bird theme when selecting the song. Nothing in the song tells me why it's named Birdy. Despite their names the beer tastes great and the song sounds fine, so that's a match.   

22-Pistepirkko: Birdy (YouTube)

From the 1992 album Big Lupu, the song was written by P-K Keränen and Asko Keränen.

Ölbeat 159: Midtfyns Barley Wine

Brewery: Midtfyns Bryghus
Country: Denmark
Style: Barley Wine
Abv: 10 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is bright copper orange with a minimal vanishing white head. Aroma has sweet caramel toffee, cream liquor and vanilla. Taste starts with strong caramel and malt flavour. Creamy caramel melted into bourbon whiskey with vanilla bars fills the mouth. Towards the end sweet bitterness gets slowly added to the flavour. Aftertaste has sweet caramel, gentle bitterness and tasty liquor.

Deliciously tough and complex strongly bourbon-vanilla flavoured Barley Wine. This is a perfect brew for cold winter nights by the fireplace. After the two previous sessions with Midtfyns beers it has become my other favorite Danish brewery.

Ölbeat

The Danes brewed an awesome, symphonically complex and delicious strong beer. The Englishmen recorded an awesome symphonical and beautiful progressive rock song. The two ought to be paired with each other. 

Led Zeppelin: Kashmir (YouTube)

From the 1975 album Physical Graffitti, the song was written by John Bonham, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.

Ölbeat 111: Hornbeer Barleywine

Brewery: Hornbeer
Country: Denmark
Style: Barley Wine
Abv: 10 %
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is amber brown with a small tan head. Aroma has sweet berries (e.g. strawberry), grapes and flowery hops. Taste begins with sweet and heavy fruity bitterness. Sweet and sour mix of raisins and lemon takes over with strong malt flavour and sensible bitterness. Towards the end we get some piny and alcoholic elements. Aftertaste has dry piny alcohol and heavy fruity bitterness.

Beautifully strong and fruity barley wine, that resembles a fine dessert wine with grape-raisin flavour. In the end hoppy bitterness and piny dryness rip the brew apart from its distant Bordeaux cousins. Nice work from the Danish artisan brewery.

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The name of the brewery forced me to look for music with horns. Turning away every possibility to match a heavy beer with big band or jazz music, Ronnie James Dio came to the rescue. As the popularizer of the sign of the horns in heavy metal culture he showed me just the right track.

Dio: Stand Up And Shout (YouTube)

From the 1983 album Holy Diver, the song was written by Jimmy Bain and Ronnie James Dio.

Ölbeat 098: Nøgne Ø #100

Brewery: Nøgne Ø
Country: Norway
Style: Barley Wine
Abv: 10 %
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is thick dark nutty brown with a small tan head. Aroma has sweet caramel malts, berries and dark fruits. Taste lifts off with intensely sweet malty and fruity hoppy first bite. Combination of sweet caramel malts and fruity bitter hops takes over with notes of chocolate and berries. Presence of alcohol is noticeable in a great way. Near the finish sweet bitterness and piny flavours come through. Aftertaste has dryness, bitterness, fruits and alcohol.

Magnificent, complex and delicious Barley Wine. Beautiful marriage of sweet malts and fruity bitter hops, with strong abv and nice side flavours applauding in the background. This surely goes to the top of my beer list and again grows expectations for the next Nøgne Ø brew to be tasted.

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This brew calls for something magical. I guess it's personal, too. Hearing this song live a little over a year ago was unforgettable. There's something in Robert Plant's voice that gives me the chills - especially after Zeppelin years:

Robert Plant: Rainbow (YouTube)

From the 2014 album Lullaby and the Ceaseless Roar, the song was written by Robert Plant, Justin Adams, John Baggott, Billy Fuller and Liam Tyson.

Ölbeat 020: Hiisi Loviatar

Brewery: Panimo Hiisi
Country: Finland
Style: Barley Wine
Abv: 10,5 %
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The birdy beast from Jyväskylä

Panimo Hiisi (webpages only in Finnish), founded in 2013, is an artisan brewery in Jyväskylä in Central Finland. According to the webpages the brewery's selfish agenda is to make the kind of beer that the brewers themselves would like to drink. Hiisi brews' names are often borrowed from Finnish ancient legends like Kalevala, e.g. Loviatar is the blind daughter of the god of death Tuoni and the underworld queen Tuonetar.

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

What about the beer?
Colour is hazy mud-brown with small tan head. Aroma has a strong scent of sweet berries - strawberry & blueberry and distinctive maltiness. Taste starts with a strong combination of sweet rye and strawberry. The strawberry flavour takes slowly over. Palate adds slow hops and taste of alcohol and brings back the malty first bite. Aftertaste is bitter with berry flavours.

Hardcore experience. Extremely enjoyable beer: strong flavours and contrasts but the body keeps the combination together. A little too much of berriness, probably could have gotten a little more out of the rye, but hey, small flaws give character, overall a solid performance.

Ölbeat

The bottle label recommends the beer to be enjoyed with Savonian metal band Verjnuarmu's album Muanpiällinen helevetti. Well, no offence, I didn't, but the picture in the bottle label gave the idea:

Deep Purple: Bird Has Flown (YouTube)

From the 1969 album, Deep Purple, the song was written by keyboardist Jon Lord, vocalist Rod Evans and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. This version of the song is the original album version: a shorter re-recorded version, named The Bird Has Flown, was released as the A-side of the single Emmaretta. The song's music is driven with guitar and bass riffs and drum lines combined with Lord's haunting organ background during the chorus - this longer version ends with almost three minutes jamming and Blackmore's and Lord's solos. The lyrics are built on the phrase 'the bird has flown' referring to one's lost feeling being nothing compared to even negative or childish feelings. Well, Loviatar will certainly offer feeling to the drinker.