Ölbeat 327 (BC17 #14): Sori / Stockholm Brewing Sweet Mistress

Brewery: Sori Brewing (Stockholm Brewing Co.)
Country: Estonia (Sweden)
Style: Imperial Stout
Abv: 9,4 % 
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What about the beer?

Colour is black with a small vanishing beige head. Aroma has roasted caramel, dark chocolate and espresso. Taste begins with boozy-espresso bitter roast. Sweetish dark chocolate and bitter espresso take over with alcohol bite and quite heavy roast. Towards the end strong spicy roast and salty bitter chocolate come through first with caramel, coffee and booze in the background. Aftertaste has bitter dark chocolate, slightly sugared espresso and salty roasted dryness.

Strong, sweetish and flavourful Imperial Stout. Liquid dark chocolate meets booze-powered roast, thick layers of coffee and salty caramel. Extreme pleasure - magnificent brew. My first choice as mistress, and sweet just the right way.

Ölbeat

I wouldn't mind a sweet mistress every now and then. But let's face the facts: no chance, never. Why? Because no mistress couldn't handle the truth about what I am but she can never be.

LMFAO: Sexy And I Know It (YouTube)

From the 2011 album Sorry For Party Rocking, the song was written by Stefan Kendal Gordy, Jamahl Listenbee, Erin Beck, George M. Robertson and Kenneth Oliver.

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 304: Sori / AF Brew Midsummer Melancholy

Brewery: Sori Brewing / AF Brew (in Russian)
Country: Estonia (Russia)
Style: Imperial Porter
Abv: 11 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is black with a small beige head. Aroma has milk chocolate, coffee, vanilla and gentle roast - a scent to drown into. Taste starts with sweet and gentle vanillaish roast. Sweet chocolate, bitter black coffee and boozy roast take over. Towards the end sweet chocolate liquor with vanilla and coffee gets on top, while smoothly bitter roast lingers in the background. Aftertaste has dark chocolate, sweet vanilla and gently bitter alcohol warmth.

Delicious dessert Imperial Baltic Porter. Chocolate, vanilla and alcohol rule with their sweet and gentle grasp. Coffee and roast surrender and accept the supporting role. The result is a superb and beautiful brew. Even though - or maybe just because - the beer was enjoyed a month ago, at the edge of ending summer.

Ölbeat

Since everyone knows the obvious choice for this brew, I included it below the actual choice. The obvious choice clearly lost the duel, due to this song's dark power that I associate with the brew. 

Paradise Lost: No Hope in Sight (YouTube)

From the 2015 album Plague Within, the song was written by Nick Holmes and Greg Mackintosh.

The Obvious Choice

Almost too clear first choice for the brew, but in my opinion much too light slow disco song for a heavy beer. Melancholy is simply deeper than plain sadness. 

Lana Del Rey: Summertime Sadness (YouTube)

From the 2012 album Born to Die, the song was written by Lana Del Rey and Rick Nowels.

Ölbeat 251: Sori Laudatur XVI

Brewery: Sori Brewing
Country: Estonia 
Style: American Strong Ale
Abv: 11 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is thick dark brown with a small tan head. Aroma has chocolate, caramel, vanilla and spicy alcohol. Taste starts with bourbonish spicy kick. Sweet caramel malts with chocolate and bittersweet fruits take over with hints of spicy smoke. Towards the end gently smoky bitterness with spicy and fruity oak flavour gets through. Aftertaste has fruity boozy bitterness and spicy oaky dryness.

Extremely tasty American Strong Ale with oak, smoke and spice from the Macallan and Glenmorangie whisky barrels. Would be nice to know what was in the barrels before Sori beer. Anyway, this goes to the same excellent section with bourbon barrel-aged Arrogant Bastard. World class brew, worth some praise. Seems that 2016 was an excellent year for Sori. Just waiting for the "XVII With Honors". ;)

Ölbeat

This one goes out to the brewery. The Gorillaz' song is about realizing how feeling good personally has led to excess consumption and hedonism. So the "Feel Good Inc." - or the world based on material goods - can feel like a prison after one realizes it doesn't actually feel good. I think Sori people are well on the way to the completely opposite direction: feeling good from making other people feel good... And before digging myself any deeper into the hole of pseudo-philosophical crap, I'm cutting it.

Gorillaz feat. De La Soul: Feel Good Inc. (YouTube)

From the 2005 album Demon Days, the song was written by Damon Albarn, Brian Burton and David Jolicoeur.

Ölbeat 221: Sori Delirious

Brewery: Sori Brewing
Country: Estonia
Style: Imperial IPA
Abv: 8,1 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is hazy dark orange with a large white head. Aroma has orange, mango and pineapple (a fresh tropical fruit salad, now we're there!). Taste starts with fresh sweet and bitter citrus. Sweet orange and mango juice takes over with a bitter twist of grapefruit. Near the finish the sweet fruity bitterness is accompanied by piny and spicy flavours. Aftertaste has sweet fruity bitter start and lasting piny dry finish.

It's great to find after a break the reason why good Double and Imperial IPA's are my original favorites. Damn, this is insanely delicious. The sweet fruits. The bitterness. The piny finish. Somehow I managed to just taste and forget this at CBH festival last summer. Big mistake. I'm truly sorry, Sori people.

Ölbeat

From all the songs named Delirious I chose this piece of disco house because of the distinctive aroma and flavour of fresh sweet fruits. The beer and the song share the unapparent "happy" side of delirium. And today it's techno-Wednesday for once. 

David Guetta (feat. Tara McDonald): Delirious (YouTube)

From the 2007 album Pop Life, written by David Guetta, Joachim Garraud, Carl Ryden and Tara McDonald.

Ölbeat 190: Sori Brewing Vanilla Cake Fever

Brewery: Sori Brewing
Country: Estonia
Style: Baltic Porter
Abv: 9,9 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is black with a finger-thick vanishing beige head. Aroma has charred malts, espresso, spices and dark chocolate. Taste begins with sweet vanilla-spiced chocolate. Sweet roasted chocolate malts with spicy bitterness and vanillaish black coffee takes over. Towards the end chocolate, vanilla and alcohol come through. Aftertaste has roasted dryness, spicy dark chocolate and alcohol bitterness.

Black, sweet and tasty. Great Imperial Baltic Porter with lots of chocolate and vanilla. Roast, coffee and booze flavours are there too. Excellent dessert brew.

Ölbeat

This was a choice between vanilla, cake and fever. Since Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli are meant for other blogs than this, and Peggy Lee's or Madonna's Fever just isn't there, we're left with the cake. Since it's always nice to watch middle-aging men running around the stage on the music video, I chose this classic. What? It ain't a Benassi or Prydz video, is it?

Van Halen: Poundcake (YouTube)

From the 1991 album For Unawful Carnal Knowledge, the song was written by Eddie Van Halen, Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar and Alex Van Halen.

Skitbit Dec 2016: Tanker Külmale Maale and Sori Brewing Dark Humor Club Hot Chocolate

Exceptionally, I didn't have or at least I didn't make notes of any mentionably bad Finnish beers from the end of November until now. So instead, expectably, I picked a couple of Estonian brews that might be nice from someone's point of view but from mine weren't. First is from the sadly-not-lost archives of October, and second is from the beginning of December.

***

Brewery: Tanker
Country: Estonia
Style: Imperial Stout
Abv: 8,5 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is black with a finger-thick beige head. Aroma has strong fresh mint with some malts and dark chocolate. Taste begins with a medicine-like strong mint or even menthol bite. Mint-covered slightly roasted malts take over. Sweet fresh mint even covers the bitterness near the finish. Aftertaste has mint all over with some medicine-like cleaned freshness.

So I got the Yellow Belly effect: just Kahlua replaced with mint liquor. No, no, no! People should keep herbs out of the kettle. This isn't beer, this is cough syrup. Didn't work at all.

Ölbeat

Spice, even in a beer, can be nice. When it's there in tolerable amount. When you get run over with an army of mint leaves, it's not. When it reminds you of a short but yucky youth experience with mint flavoured liquor, you get some other pretty annoying things picked from your youth memories. Like this so-called song.

Spice Girls: Spice Up Your Life (YouTube)

From the 1997 album Spiceworld, the song was written by Spice Girls, Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard.

***

Brewery: Sori Brewing
Country: Estonia
Style: Imperial Stout
Abv: 10,2 %
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is black with a tiny beige crown. Aroma has roasted malts, dark chocolate and espresso. Taste starts with roasted boozy bitterness. Bitter strong espresso with faint dark chocolate hints takes over. Towards the end growing bitterness with alcohol dryness drowns the other flavours. Aftertaste has bitter dark chocolate and dry roast.

Aroma promises something a lot better than the taste delivers. Boozy bitter domination until the end is too much. The chocolate flavours don't come out as expected. After all, this is named Hot Chocolate. Or is that some kind of dark humor, too?

Ölbeat

The name of the brewery comes from a quarter in Tampere city centre, where e.g. the city police station is situated, and not so much from the Finnish diminutive of anteeksi (sorry). So it's probably polite to respect the city where the Sori guys Pyry and Heikki learned the basics of brewing. And what could be better way to show respect than a song about the singer's and his friends adventures with other Tampere ice hockey club, by a Tampere-based oldie rock band. It's dark humor, at least. Sori, everyone.

Popeda: Mää ja Tapparan mies (YouTube)

From the 1992 album Svoboda, the song was written by Alex Harvey, Hugh McKenna and David Batchelor (Tomahawk Kid) - the Finnish lyrics were written by Juice Leskinen.

Ölbeat 054: Sori Investor IPA

Brewery: Sori Brewing
Country: Estonia
Style: India Pale Ale
Abv: 6,9 %
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Would you invest in this brew?

What about the beer?
Colour is cloudy dark orange with finger-thick natural white head. Aroma has orange, lemon and pineapple. Taste begins with bitter hops and grapefruit. Fresh grapefruit takes over, with a slice of sweet pineapple on the side. When the beer warms up a bit the grapefruit is replaced by heavy lemon-orange flavour. Before the finish mouth gets hit with dry pine and sour grapefruit. Aftertaste is dry and very bitter.

Fresh tasting fruity IPA, where bitterness strikes strongest in the end. The way the flavours evolve when the beer warms up a bit, makes the aroma and the taste fit together well. The brew was named to honour the crowdfunders which helped the brewery to start. That was money well invested.

Ölbeat

Since the beer is rocking fresh, it yells for guitars and classic rock. Because it has been brewed out of respect to the crowdfunders, this legendary tune caught my ear (even though they didn't get the money for nothing):

Dire Straits: Money For Nothing (YouTube)

From the 1985 album Brothers in Arms, the song was written by Mark Knopfler (except the backing vocal line "I want my MTV" by Sting).

Ölbeat 035: Sori Out of Office Session IPA

Brewery: Sori Brewing
Country: Estonia 
Style: Session IPA
Abv: 4,5 %
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After work it's time to chill

Sori Brewing, founded in 2014, is a microbrewery in Tallinn, Estonia. The people behind the brewery are two Finns, Pyry Hurula and Heikki Uotila, who decided to start a brewery without compromises. In Finland it would have been hard, if not even impossible. The brewery is owned by 225 investors, who have crowdfunded the brewery's growth with two batches of share emissions. Out of Office was one of the first brews from the brewery - tasted it for a couple of times and now bringing it out to the blog.

What about the beer?
Colour is cloudy golden yellow with huge white slowly suffocated head. Aroma has mild scents of orange, pear and pineapple.Taste gives fresh hops and lemon in the start: the absolute first bite is dry and very bitter. Lemon and grapefruit soon spread all over the mouth, some sweet fruit like pear or pineapple is sensed in the background. Palate adds some bitterness. Aftertaste is dry and piny.

This is a solid performance despite the low abv. The experience bites with a hop load and sour citrus fruits but is overall very balanced. I could imagine to start my weekend - or even better: an evening of any day of the week - with this beer.

Ölbeat

Ok. Even though this is an afterwork beer and not a beer for lightening one's teenage trauma, who can honestly say to have never thought of this song on Monday morning? Right, I explained this one:

Beastie Boys: (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party) (YouTube)

From the 1986 album Licesed to Ill, the song was written by Adam Yauch and Tom Cushman. The song was intended to be a parody of party and attitude themed songs like Mötley Crüe's Smoking in the Boys' Room and Twisted Sister's I Wanna Rock. (Un)fortunately, the parody has been lost with most of the audience and the song has became a legendary partystarter. Stylewise the song is a mixture of rap and rock, and the lyrics tell a story of a youngster who is anxious about living at home with "strict" parents. Out of Office fits the song perfectly: it surely can start the weekend, and the reason behind the brewery's "nationality" not being Finnish could be a parody. Unfortunately, it's not.