Ölbeat 336 (BC17 #23): Lervig / Hoppin' Frog Sippin' Into Darkness

Brewery: Lervig Aktiebryggeri (Hoppin' Frog Brewery) 
Country: Norway (United States)
Style: Imperial Stout 
Abv: 12 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is black with a small vanishing beige head. Aroma is pure sweet milk chocolate with sip of vanilla (= pure awesomeness!). Taste begins with sweet cherry-coated chocolate. Sweet milk chocolate and vanilla-flavoured roast take over with some boozy fruits. Towards the end the chocolate gets bitter dark, nutty and coffeeish tones with a fruity alcohol bite. Aftertaste has dark chocolate bitterness, fruity sweetness and coffee liquor -flavoured roast.

Sweet and strong Imperial Stout with tons of chocolate. We start with liquid milk chocolate and end up with nutty and dark flavours. Fruit liquor kicks in nicely, vanilla, coffee and roast have just the right role. Delicious, absolutely beautiful brew.

Ölbeat

"Sipping into darkness" could mean either drinking slowly while waiting the night to fall or having small mouthfuls until one passes out. I prefer the latter one with this strong brew and welcome the mythical magical sand sprinkler to bring nice dreams... well, some kind of dreams to everyone.

Metallica: Enter Sandman (YouTube)

From the 1991 album Metallica, the song was written by Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield.

Ölbeat 316 (BC17 #3): Lervig Brewers Reserve Konrad's Stout

Brewery: Lervig Aktiebryggeri
Country: Norway
Style: Imperial Stout
Abv: 10,4 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is black with a small tan head. Aroma has roasted malts, coffee and chocolate. Taste begins with boozy and bitter heavy roast. Boozy sweet roast with black coffee and chocolate takes over. Towards the end sweet roasted malts, dark chocolate and salty liquorice get through with alcohol in the background. Aftertaste has bitter cocoa and very dry roasted liquorice.

Heavy and rich Imperial Stout. Booze kicks in early but gets smooth on the way. Coffee makes a quick visit, chocolate turns bitter and roast, well, it's definitely there. Pretty excellent. Fine work from the damn lucky "fjord" people.

Ölbeat

Majestic dark brew calls for a symphonic metal song. From Norway, of course.

Tristania: Lavender (YouTube)

From the 2013 album Darkest White, the song was written by Tristania.

Ölbeat 264: Lervig Lucky Jack Grapefruit Edition

Brewery: Lervig Aktiebryggeri
Country: Norway
Style: American Pale Ale
Abv: 4,7 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is hazy orange with a two-finger thick white head. Aroma has superfresh grapefruit and sweet orange. Taste begins with fresh sweetish grapefruit. Light and fresh grapefruit takes over with sweet orange notes. Towards the end citrus lemonade flavour becomes distinctive.  Aftertaste has lightly bitter grapefruit and mild dryness.

Light American Pale Ale with a genuine grapefruit juice flavour. The taste is very near to Finnish long drink - lonkero, in Finnish. Clearly a summer beer that stays a bit thin behind the citrus. Well made brew, still. The Stavanger brewery has shown it can manage the low abv limits of the Scandinavian countries (as we all know as a fact, Denmark is just a peninsula of northern Germany).

Ölbeat

The beer and its moment probably don't deserve this song, but having this - and many other - kind of beers available for me to drink and enjoy makes me feel lucky. And the last time I checked, I was a man. Whether I have any balls or not, doesn't make a difference - I'm a lucky man.

The Verve: Lucky Man (YouTube)

From the 1997 album Urban Hymns, the song was written by Richard Ashcroft.

Ölbeat 150: Lervig/Way 3 Bean Stout

Brewery: Lervig Aktiebryggeri / Cervejaria Way Beer
Country: Norway (Brazil)
Style: Imperial Stout
Abv: 13 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is black with a thin beige crown. Aroma has roast, chocolate, alcohol and vanilla. Taste spikes with sharply boozy and spicy coffee. Vanilla-flavoured chocolate-mocca takes over with sweet boozy bitterness. Near the finish vanilla, tonka and cardamom spices come through with chocolate and alcohol. Aftertaste has sweet roasty bitterness and warming cocoa liquor. And it lasts.

Damn great spicy and sweet Imperial Stout. Vanilla, chocolate and spices really dominate - booze, roast and coffee play the second violin. If there comes a chance, I'll surely get back in business with this Norwegian brewery.

Ölbeat

Complex spicy and orchestrally magnificent brew deserves an equal counterpart. We'll find it in this bittersweet track: "Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life / Try to make ends meet / You're a slave to money then you die." Someone might wisecrack something like "it's too early to reserve this great song for a beer". But that's life.

The Verve: Bitter Sweet Symphony (YouTube)

From the 1997 album Urban Hymns, the song was written by Richard Ashcroft (and also credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards for samples of an orchestral version of Rolling Stones' The Last Time).

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.