Ölbeat 195: Buxton Extra Porter

Brewery: Buxton Brewery
Country: England
Style: Porter
Abv: 7,4 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is black with a small vanishing beige head. Aroma has sweet milk chocolate and fresh black coffee, a deliciously seducing scent. Taste starts wiht dark chocolate and bitter coffee bite. Bittersweet pure-cocoa chocolate and fresh dark-roasted coffee with sweet spices come on strong. Towards the end roasted malts, vanilla and warming booze join the flavours. Aftertaste has sweet chocolate, bitter cocoa liquor and lasting black coffee.

Boom! Excellent Porter with cocoa and coffee beans really showing the magic. Delicious chocolate and coffee get joined with spicy, roasted and boozy flavours. Beautifully multisided brew from Buxton who have already presented great skills with thick black beers earlier on.

Ölbeat

There's certainly some magic and some royalty in this brew. Don't know if the magic is black or if it's the queen of gypsies that's present but Carlos Santana's guitar leads the way and Gregg Rolie's vocals dance along. Great music to match a superb beer.

Santana: Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen (YouTube)

From the 1970 album Abraxas, the song was written by Peter Green (Black Magic Woman) and Gábor Szabó (Gypsy Queen).

Ölbeat 183: Buxton Axe Edge

Brewery: Buxton Brewery
Country: England
Style: India Pale Ale
Abv: 6,8 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is fuzzy golden orange with a medium-sized white head. Aroma has grapefruit, orange and tropical fruits. Taste lifts off with biting fruity bitterness. Freshly bitter and piny grapefruit takes over with sweet orange in the background. Towards the end strong pine and citrus peel flavours come in front. Aftertaste has peel bitterness and piny dryness.

Fruity, fresh and delicious India Pale Ale. Grapefruit and pine dominate the flavour strongly but smoothly. Sweet orange and bitter peel give some extra fruit and twist. Excellent brew from Buxton, once again.

Ölbeat

As a superfresh IPA, the beer demands a rock song. The name demands a war-related song... Well, since we're in Finland, someone could consider a song where the drunk head-of-the-family takes his axe and drives the rest of the family outside to the cold snow. ("Perr-kele!!") But since those songs are only made in Finland and for certain Finnish beers, we'll stick to the war theme. Even though there are only muskets and horses - no axes - mentioned in the song lyrics. Damn the details, just listen to Bruce and the boys! 

Iron Maiden: The Trooper (YouTube)

From the 1983 album Piece of Mind, the song was written by Steve Harris.

Ölbeat 165: Buxton King Maker

Brewery: Buxton Brewery
Country: England
Style: Imperial IPA
Abv: 10,5 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is clear light orange with a finger-thick white head. Aroma has boozy fruit cocktail i.e. alcohol, orange and banana. Taste starts with strong fruity alcoholic bitterness. Bittersweet orange-mango liquor fills the mouth with hints of bitter grapefruit and dry pine. Towards the end sweet fruit candy, spicy-biting alcohol and strong piny bitterness start to compete with each other. Aftertaste is strong and lasting and has bitter pine and sweet fruity booze.

Really strong, fruity and bitter Imperial IPA. The combination of sweet orange, boozy bite and pine bitter make this one hard to handle - the beer barks and bites. And I love it. Excellent stuff from the other Derbyshire master brewery.

Ölbeat

Strong brew asks for a powerful song. In addition to a sword pictured in the bottle label, the king needs a temple or a sanctuary. This is a medieval-toned fantasy ballad about one. Rainbow was one of the supergroups of the 70's, originally joining together Ritchie Blackmore's mastery of guitar and Ronnie James Dio's unbelievable vocal range.

Rainbow: The Temple of the King (YouTube)

From the 1975 album Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, the song was written by Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio.

Ölbeat 152: Buxton Nth Cloud

Brewery: Buxton Brewery
Country: England
Style: Imperial IPA
Abv: 8,2 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is clear golden orange with a bubbly medium-sized white head. Aroma has rich mango, pineapple and citrus. Taste begins with rough piny and  fruity bitterness. Piny bitter grapefruit juice takes over with some sweet citrus on the background. Orange and alcohol flavours join the taste near the finish. Aftertaste has piny dryness and grapefruit bitterness.

Rough pine in the start makes the entry of incoming fruits easy. Strong citrus and pine powered Double or Imperial IPA. Very savoury and rich. No disappointments from the favourite brewery.

Ölbeat

Heavy brew - heavy flight to the sky and beyond. Nuff said.

Avenged Sevenfold: Higher (YouTube)

From the 2016 album The Stage, the song was written by Avenged Sevenfold.

Ölbeat 086: Buxton Wild Boar

Brewery: Buxton Brewery
Country: England
Style: India Pale Ale
Abv: 5,4 %
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What about the beer?
Colour is hazy golden yellow with huge white head. Aroma has sweet citrus, mango, grass and malts. Taste begins with sparkling hoppy bite. Gently bitter-sour grapefruit takes over with a dry piny note. Malty character and sweetish lime with a touch of peel comes through near the finish. Aftertaste has fresh bitter grapefruit and some malty dryness.

Very drinkable, not overly hopped India Pale Ale. In the flavour there's a nice palette of citrus, which is supported by smooth dryness and tasty malts. Not for the wildest hopheads, but for ones who like a softer and fruitier approach to the style.

Ölbeat

As the word wild doesn't in this case imply to crazy-hopped brew but rather nicely fruity IPA, we don't go searching for a hard or punk rock song. Exceptionally, we go relatively near to the brew's birthplace with this entertaining piece of new wave dance rock from a Birmingham-based band:

Duran Duran: The Wild Boys (YouTube)

From the 1984 album Arena, the song was written by Duran Duran.

Ölbeat 078: Buxton/Lervig Trolltunga

Brewery: Buxton Brewery / Lervig Aktiebryggeri
Country: England (Norway)
Style: Sour Ale
Abv: 6,3 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is pale hazy yellow with a small white head. Aroma has stingy sourness and tartness, mostly grapefruit and some lingonberry. Taste begins with extremely tart and sour lemon with gentle hoppy bitter bite. The citrus dominates firmly with tiny malty and bitter notes here and there. Near the finish acidic berries like lingonberry and cloudberry join the orchestra. Aftertaste has lemon sourness and salty dryness.

Heavy hardcore sour-tart brew. The tartness strikes aggressively to the gums, lemon sourness dominates the symphony and gooseberry shows clearly up in the final notes. Unforgettably powerful and great experience. I was taken to the edge like the name of the beer, given by a popular horizontal cliff in the mountains of Norway, promises.

Ölbeat

Trolltunga. Edgy place, edgy beer. To get some music to match I had to visit the other side of the world. Exciting brew asks for dangerous company. Here's a funky rock song about one kind of danger:

INXS: Suicide Blonde (YouTube)

From the 1990 album X, the song was written by Andrew Farriss and Michael Hutchence.

Ölbeat 037: Buxton Rain Shadow

Brewery: Buxton Brewery
Country: England
Style: Imperial Stout
Abv: 11,8 %
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No dry desert, but incredible dessert

What about the beer?
Colour is pitch black with small brown head. Aroma has heavy roast sweet black coffee and dark chocolate on the side - I drown myself in the scent. Taste begins with heavily hopped and roasted first bite. Salty-sweet malts and A-class dark-roasted coffee take control. Palate adds strong sweet hoppy and alcoholic bitterness. Aftertaste is awesome: unbelievably delicious bitter dark chocolate with an espresso note.

Extremely powerful beer. All flavours are strong and intense but still it's a perfectly delicious experience. From the first sip and the rush of hops, roast and coffee I knew that the taste at least keeps the promise that the aroma gave. One of the best imperial stouts I've tasted, and since imps are among my favourite beer styles, this goes to the top of the list.

Ölbeat

Since the brew really got me, I could only match this rock classic with it:

The Kinks: You Really Got Me (YouTube)

Song from the 1964 album Kinks, written by Dave Davies. 

...and because Rain Shadow really got me, here's the great cover, if you prefer it:

Van Halen: You Really Got Me (YouTube)

Song from the 1978 album Van Halen.

Blogger's note:
As you can see, I've decided to cut off the brewery or beer descriptions and the song description, since anyone can find some facts about the brewery/beer and the song. From now on, it's just the beer and the song with less unnecessary crap. 

Ölbeat 012: Buxton Bloc Head

Brewery: Buxton Brewery
Country: England
Style: Saison/Farmhouse Ale
Abv: 5,4 %
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A tractor brew for sheep and pig... not!

Buxton Brewery, founded in 2009, lies in the spa town of Buxton in Derbyshire, England. For a fairly young brewery it's already been labelled as a quality brewer in the international level: the brewery entered Ratebeer's annual top 100 brewer list in 2013 and has been there since. I've tasted couple of their brews and decided to find the first Ölbeat for a not-so-ordinary brew.

What about the beer?
Colour is hazy orange with tiny, immediately vanishing white crown. Aroma has strong sour scents of apple and lemon and some faint odour of yeast. Taste begins with dry sourness with lemon and grows somewhat ciderish by the palate. Palate adds yeast and malt. Aftertaste is very dry and lemony.

I can see this beer dividing the beer drinkers to likers and haters: the experience is pretty far from the ordinary beer styles and even the 'normal' saisons. I liked it a lot: in the growing field of IPA's and imperial stouts an unusual and well-done brew tastes incredibly fresh and stands out from the crowd. Not for stereotype-lovers.

Ölbeat

Even though labelled as 'farmhouse pale ale' a pure country song is out of question - in this blog, it's always that way. Finally, it was the theme and origin of the beer, that guided me to this one:

Blur: Country House (YouTube)

From the 1995 album, Great Escape, was written by the band members. The song is not so traditional Blur: of course, the lazy whining vocals of Damon Albarn are present, but the instrumental parts resemble more a circus parade song with trumpet and saxophone than the band's normal disco-pop-rock style. Lyrics tell a story of a man, who gets tired of city life, moves into a big country house and leads an empty and dull life there, not meeting his fantasy. The song was inspired by Blur's ex-manager, who got burnt out in the music business and left it to live in the countryside. Personally, I know that despite liking the peace and quiet of the countryside it would make me feel like the man in Country House. Bloc Head reminded me of this fact.