Ölbeat 227: Lammin Hippiäinen

Brewery: Lammin Sahti
Country: Finland
Style: Traditional Ale
Abv: 7 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is hazy brown with a large white head. Aroma has syrupy malts, caramel and sweet rye bread. Taste begins with grainy fruits. Sweet fruity caramel malts dominate with a little snap of alcohol. Towards the end bitter dark fruits get through among the sweet malts. Aftertaste has fruity malts and alcohol warmth.

Tasty Traditional Ale from the sahti brewery. Sweet fruity malts get the starring role as they should, boozy kick is very warm and gentle. Really enjoyable stuff.

This beer was part of Alko's Finnish microbrewery craftbeer selection in spring 2017.

Ölbeat

Since the brew's named after the smallest bird in Europe - hippiäinen, goldcrest - the song's name was deciced. Only thing to do was to find the right one to fit the style of the beer. Luckily, an acoustic song from this Irish singer-songerwriter fitted the mold.

Lisa Hannigan: Little Bird (YouTube)

From the 2011 album Passenger, the song was written by Lisa Hannigan.

Ölbeat 021: Lammin Sahti Ruisrääkkä

Brewery: Lammin Sahti
Country: Finland
Style: Specialty Grain
Abv: 7 %
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The corn crake got into the bottle

Lammin Sahti, founded in 1985, is a microbrewery in Lammi village, which is a part of Hämeenlinna city in Southern Finland. The brewery is one of the most known sahti breweries in Finland, but they brew also beer and cider. Sahti is a traditional Finnish non-filtered beer, which is brewed using more malts than when brewing regular beer and spiced usually with juniper berries, hops or both. The result is a sweet banana-like flavoured drink, that can't be stored for long.

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

What about the beer?
Colour is hazy dark brown with tiny tan-beige head. Aroma gives scents of sweet malts, rye bread and Finnish malt beer. Taste has medium-sweet grainy malts and a hoppy first pinch on tongue. Flavour grows into very distinctive rye taste: there's a strong breadiness present. Palate gives some gentle hops and notes of cherries and some sweet berries. Aftertaste has maltiness and warming alcohol.

Now we have a beer, that pays respect to the rye malt. Strong malty flavours with nice and smooth sidetrips to bitter hops and sweet berries. Unique and enjoyable brew, I must say.

Ölbeat

The strong presence of rye and the bready taste basically forced me to choose this forgotten treasure. One sure earworm, but you have been warned - and watch the video:

Laid Back: Bakerman (YouTube)

Released in 1989 and from the 1990 album, Hole in the Sky, the song was written by the Danish Laid Back duo Guldberg - Stahl and songwriter Arthur Stander. It's a slow synthpop tune which features guest vocals by Hanne Boel. Lyrics are unharmful nonsense, consisting mostly of phrases: "Bakerman is baking bread / Sagabona kunjani wena (Swahili: Hello, how are you?) / The night train is coming / Got to keep on running". Video for the song was directed by Lars von Trier in one take and features the song personnel freefalling in the sky singing and playing instruments. I really can't tell why Ruisrääkkä made me think of this song but it just happened. Sorry, guys.