Ölbeat 240: Sonnisaari Humalaja

Brewery: Sonnisaari
Country: Finland
Style: India Pale Ale 
Abv: 6,7 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is hazy golden orange with a large white head. Aroma has orange, grapefruit and pineapple. Taste begins with spiking citrus. Bitter grapefruit with stingy pine and sweet orange takes over. Near the finish orange and grapefruit bring out a storm of citrus. Aftertaste has citrus bitterness and piny dryness.

Deliciously hopped India Pale Ale. Fruits and bitterness come on powerfully but smoothly. Every sip seems to strengthen the leading flavours. I prefer the bottled version against the tap (Cafe Rooster visit). Clearly one of the top IPAs from Finland now.

Ölbeat

So, the name of the brew is a word game with 'humala' (Finnish for hop) and 'Himalaja' (Himalayas). Since it's clearly an American style brew, some good blues rock seemed appropriate. Then Mr. Bonamassa offers a song that describes how it is to have a microbrewery in Finland, I presume. If it's not climbing and "pounding the hammer between steel and stone" every day, it's surely not a bed of roses either.

Joe Bonamassa: Mountain Climbing (YouTube)

From the 2016 album Blues of Desperation, the song was written by Joe Bonamassa and Tom Hambridge.

Ölbeat 024: Hop Valley Alphadelic IPA

Brewery: Hop Valley Brewing Co.
Country: United States 
Style: India Pale Ale
Abv: 6,7 %
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Different shade of West Coast IPA

Hop Valley Brewing Company, founded in 2009, is a craftbeer brewery in Springfield, Oregon, US. Named after the hop-growing history - and also the present - of the county and the state, the brewery has grown its production from 1 000 barrels in the first year to 12 000 barrels in 2015. Fast growth is explained by the popular demand, and the popular demand rises - in the case of beer - because of the quality brewing. So, in the webshop, it wasn't so hard to pick some brews for tasting.

What about the beer?
Colour is clear golden orange with tiny natural white head. Aroma has fresh sweet fruits: grape, pear, peach. Taste begins with softly biting rather sweet caramel than heavy bitter hops. The gentle hoppy bitterness dominates, fruitiness and citrus stays in the background. Palate adds some dry pine, and the finish is bitter and dry.

Fresh and fruity aroma promised a little different journey, but nevertheless the ride was smooth and balanced. Not the usual West Coast IPA hop rollercoaster.

Ölbeat

The smooth freshness and the complete lack of harshness made me look for a blues rock song. There were some artists and songs to turn to, but I chose this rather new one:

Joe Bonamassa: Oh Beautiful! (YouTube)

From the 2014 album Different Shades of Blue, the song was written by Bonamassa and country singer James House. The song opens with Bonamassa singing the first verse a cappella peacefully, then exploding with steady guitar-led bridge to the second verse, which is slow vocal-driven again. The song ends with the last verse sung a cappella. Don't worry: the artist gets to show some blues guitar mastery on the way. Lyrics build up a Shakespearian style love poem, first and last verse owned to "beautiful", the loved one, and the second to "gravity", the singer's connection to her. There's the same kind of one-sided attraction between the singer and the loved one as there's with me and Alphadelic IPA, so the song matches with the beer nicely.